Browsing by Subject "Wireless sensors"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Coupled passive resonant circuits as battery-free wireless sensors(2010-05) Pasupathy, Praveenkumar; Neikirk, Dean P., 1957-; Wood, Sharon L.; Arapostathis, Aristotle; Dodabalapur, Ananth; Hassibi, ArjangDetection and monitoring of the damage created by the corrosion of the steel reinforcement in concrete structures is a challenging and multidisciplinary problem. Economical monitoring strategy that is long-term and nondestructive requires low-cost, battery-free, wireless sensors. Our Electronic Structural Surveillance (ESS) platform uses battery-free passive resonant circuit (tag) as a sensor. The tag is magnetically coupled to an external reader coil. It is interrogated/read remotely in a non-contact (wireless) manner and the state of the sensor is determined from a swept frequency impedance measurement. When paired with the correct sensing element (transducer), the tag can be used for a variety of sensing applications for example, chemical & biochemical sensors. A circuit model of the reader and tag for such a universal battery-free wireless sensor platform is developed. The interaction between design and detection limit is examined. The dependence of the measured signal strength and read range on the various reader and tag circuit parameters is analyzed. Since the values of the circuit of the coils are dependent on their geometries, the effect of specific coil geometry is evaluated and design recommendations are made.Item Miniaturized antenna and transponder based wireless sensors for internet of things in healthcare(2014-12) Huang, Haiyu; Akinwande, Deji; Gharpurey, Ranjit; Neikirk, Dean; Hu, Ye; Lu, NanshuFuture medical and healthcare systems will be largely improved by the wide-spreading of internet of things (IoTs). One of the crucial challenges of IoTs for healthcare is at the wireless sensors. Miniaturization of sensor node profile, minimizing power consumption as well as lowering down design/production cost of antenna, RF circuits and sensor modules have become the key issues for realizing more exciting applications in medical and healthcare fields that never seemed to be possible before. In this dissertation work, we first focus on electrically small antenna (ESA) design and fabrication for medical telemetry. A comprehensive analysis of the radiation properties of a novel electrically small folded ellipsoidal ESA is presented, showing its ability to self-resonate and impedance match without external components. It will benefit various size-restricted applications especially with wireless medical implants. The second focus is on healthcare sensors using ESA as the sensing agent, which saves the power and cost by eliminating the need of extra sensing modules. Specifically, miniaturized helix ESAs are integrated with drug reservoirs to function as wireless transponder sensors for real-time drug dosage monitoring. We also introduce a system level innovation of a passive wireless harmonic transponder/harmonic sniffer/frequency hopped interrogator based sensing system. The μL- liquid level resolution and absolute-accuracy passive sensing is demonstrated in the presence of strong direct coupling, background scatters, distance variance as well as near-filed human body movement interference. Furthermore, we investigate how modern ubiquitous wireless sensor networks could take advantage of sensitive nanostructure materials for enhanced performance. Here we propose a new paradigm of chemically-gated mixed modulation on a single homogeneous graphene device in which the chemical exposure directly modulates an electrical carrier signal. To make the device ubiquitously reusable, a method of precisely tuning the charge neutrality point (Vcnp) is introduced by electrochemical calibration with gate voltage pulse sequence. Such chemically gated graphene modulator can be potentially used in a harmonic transponder as a passive ubiquitous sensor node for chemical and bio sensing applications. Overall the research work presented in the dissertation will help enable cost and power-efficient wireless sensor networks in future healthcare IoTs.Item Rapid reading for passive wireless coupled sensors(2012-08) Trivedi, Tanuj Kiranbhai; Neikirk, Dean P., 1957-; Wood, Sharon L.; Pasupathy, PraveenkumarThe objective of this thesis is to design and implement a rapid, reconfigurable and portable reader for wirelessly interrogating inductively coupled passive sensors. While the current method of impedance analyzer is sensitive and an accurate, the instruments used are bulky and slow, substantially hampering in-field testing and interrogation of sensors. Current methods cannot provide a quantifiable measure on minimum necessary read-speeds and instrument accuracy desirable for rapid sensing applications. This work summarizes the design and hardware implementation of two reader methods that address the aforementioned requirements. Both reader methods are based on a reflectometer approach: Swept-frequency Reflectometer Reader and Switched-frequency Interrogation Technique (SWIFT). The first method is a much faster alternative to in-lab and in-field testing for structural health monitoring, and is intended as an immediate replacement for the impedance analyzer method. Switched-frequency Interrogation is specifically designed to satisfy the need for rapid and accurate reading, potentially for in-motion sensing applications. This method provides a way of empirically relating minimum necessary read-time required for desired read-ranges. It also facilitates quantification of uncertainty in measurements, which is very critical in determining instrument accuracy in-field. The system design and implementation of both methods are described in detail and experimental results are presented to benchmark the performance of the readers. Issues of instrument reliability and practical limitations are also discussed, with potential solutions. Both methods are intended as universal techniques for wirelessly interrogating coupled passive sensors, not limited to their current form of implementation.Item Structural and material health monitoring of cementitious materials using passive wireless conductivity sensors(2013-05) Kim, Jin-Young, active 2013; Wood, Sharon L.Electrical conductivity (or resistivity) of cementitious materials is considered to be a fundamental property and is commonly measured using nondestructive and noninvasive testing techniques. Therefore, electrical measurements are gaining popularity in both research and field applications for structural health monitoring and material characterization of civil engineering infrastructure systems. Based on the results of measurements, the engineer can schedule maintenance more accurately and give an early warning of possible structural failure. Recently, health monitoring systems are capable of significantly increasing the cost efficiency of maintenance and repair by helping engineers improve the safety and maintainability of structures through early damage detection. The research team at the University of Texas at Austin developed a low-cost, passive, wireless conductivity sensor system. Sensors are wirelessly interrogated using external reader during inspection over the service life of the structure to monitor the conductivity variations within concrete. The focus of this work is to assess the condition of cementitious materials by measuring electrical conductivity using passive wireless sensors. By analyzing the measured conductivity data, the condition of the cementitious material, such as extent of hydration, setting and hardening times, and transport phenomena, can be assessed. This document also provides comprehensive information on the design, fabrication, interrogation, and response of conductivity sensor platforms.