Polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA)-based RF humidity Sensor in microwave frequency

Abstract

A highly sensitive, passive relative humidity (RH) sensor using polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) dielectric film is presented. For the first time, PVA is investigated in microwave RF sensing devices for low cost, high resolution and accurate chipless RH sensor realization. Comparative study with traditional humidity sensing Kapton polymer is presented to validate superior performance of PVA film. Results are presented for two different passive high Q resonators to validate sensing performance in wide applications. Moreover, a new sensing parameter is described to investigate sensitivity measurement through resonance frequency and Q factor variation. The RH sensor has the potential to be integrated with mm and μm-wave high frequency passive RFID for ubiquitous sensing.