Surface acoustic wave devices as passive buried sensors

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are currently used as passive remote-controlled sensors for measuring various physical quantities through a wireless link. Among the two main classes of designs—resonator and delay line—the former has the advantage of providing narrow-band spectrum informations and hence appears compatible with an interrogation strategy complying with Industry-Scientific-Medical regulations in radio-frequency (rf) bands centered around 434, 866, or 915 MHz. Delay-line based sensors require larger bandwidths as they consists of a few interdigitated electrodes excited by short rf pulses with large instantaneous energy and short response delays but is compatible with existing equipment such as ground penetrating radar (GPR). We here demonstrate the measurement of temperature using the two configurations, particularly for long term monitoring using sensors buried in soil. Although we have demonstrated long term stability and robustness of packaged resonators and signal to noise ratio compat...

[1]  W. Buff,et al.  Universal pressure and temperature SAW sensor for wireless applications , 1997, 1997 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium Proceedings. An International Symposium (Cat. No.97CH36118).

[2]  A. P. Annan,et al.  Ground-penetrating radar for high-resolution mapping of soil and rock stratigraphy , 1989 .

[3]  Leonhard M. Reindl,et al.  The "intelligent tire" utilizing passive SAW sensors measurement of tire friction , 1999, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas..

[4]  A. Stelzer,et al.  Performance evaluation of algorithms for SAW-based temperature measurement , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[5]  Tavi Murray,et al.  Distribution and character of water in a surge‐type glacier revealed by multifrequency and multipolarization ground‐penetrating radar , 2008 .

[6]  Andrew S. Tanenbaum,et al.  The evolution of RFID security , 2006, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[7]  Y. Wen,et al.  Detecting and evaluating the signals of wirelessly interrogational passive SAW resonator sensors , 2004, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[8]  Kun Shi,et al.  The use of ground-penetrating radar with a cooperative target , 1998, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[9]  Jonathan H. Jiang,et al.  Ice and water permittivities for millimeter and sub‐millimeter remote sensing applications , 2004 .

[10]  D. Daniels Ground Penetrating Radar , 2005 .

[11]  L. Reindl,et al.  Wireless measurement of temperature using surface acoustic waves sensors , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[12]  Leonhard Reindl,et al.  SAW devices as wireless passive sensors , 1996, 1996 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium. Proceedings.

[13]  Giovanni Leucci,et al.  Ground Penetrating Radar: The Electromagnetic Signal Attenuation and Maximum Penetration Depth , 2008 .

[14]  Xiaoqi Bao,et al.  SAW Temperature Sensor and Remote Reading System , 1987, IEEE 1987 Ultrasonics Symposium.

[15]  Leonhard M. Reindl,et al.  State of the art in wireless sensing with surface acoustic waves , 2001, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron..

[16]  S Ballandras,et al.  A wireless interrogation system exploiting narrowband acoustic resonator for remote physical quantity measurement. , 2010, The Review of scientific instruments.

[17]  J. Legarsky,et al.  Coherent radar ice thickness measurements over the Greenland ice sheet , 2001 .

[18]  V. M. Malhotra,et al.  CRC Handbook on Nondestructive Testing of Concrete , 1990 .

[19]  W. Buff,et al.  Passive remote sensing for temperature and pressure using SAW resonator devices , 1998, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[20]  Constantine A. Balanis,et al.  Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design , 1982 .

[21]  V. Laude,et al.  Simulations of surface acoustic wave devices built on stratified media using a mixed finite element/boundary integral formulation , 2004 .