Review of scientific instruments: Evaluation of adulteration in honey using a microwave planar resonator sensor

Abstract

A microwave microstrip line resonator sensor is developed as an alternative tool for detecting adulteration in honey. A honey-filled tube is placed at the position with the maximum electric field intensity. When the honey is adulterated, its permittivity is changed, leading to a distinct resonance frequency shift and enabling detection. Compared with the existing microwave sensors, this sensor offers the advantages of low cost, compact size, and easy fabrication. Moreover, quantitative analysis of the adulteration could be achieved. Electromagnetic simulation is performed using a co-simulation with CST and MATLAB. The simulation results reveal that the resonance frequency of the resonator decreases as the added water content increases, following a quadratic polynomial relationship. In the experiments, the results demonstrate a successive decrease in the resonance frequency from the empty tube, honey-filled tube to water-filled tube cases. Furthermore, honey samples with varying water contents (up to 70%) are tested, and the resonance frequency decreases with increasing added water content, which agrees well with the simulation results. In addition, there is a quadratic relationship between the two parameters. Principal component analysis is conducted on the transmission coefficients, and the first principal component decreases with increasing water content. With the addition of the second principal component, the cases of different water contents in honey can be well classified.