Capacitive fringing field sensors in printed circuit board technology

Author

Dean, Robert N. ; Rane, Aditi ; Baginski, Michael ; Hartzog, Zane ; Elton, David J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Auburn Univ., Auburn, AL, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

3-6 May 2010

Firstpage

970

Lastpage

974

Abstract

Capacitive fringing field sensors utilizing interdigitated electrode structures have been utilized in many applications. Printed circuit board technology is useful for realizing this type of sensor architecture by fabricating the interdigitated electrode structures in the patterned Cu foil. Furthermore, the solder mask coating is useful for insulating the electrodes to prevent shorting in the presence of water. Using this approach, prototype sensors were designed, simulated, fabricated and successfully evaluated. Applications include water detection and quantity measurement, and soil moisture content measurement.

Keywords

capacitive sensors; copper; electrodes; moisture measurement; printed circuits; soil; soldering; Cu; capacitive fringing field sensor; interdigitated electrode; patterned copper foil; printed circuit board technology; soil moisture content measurement; solder mask coating; water detection; Capacitive sensors; Circuit simulation; Coatings; Electrodes; Insulation; Moisture measurement; Printed circuits; Soil measurements; Soil moisture; Virtual prototyping; fringing field capacitance; interdigitated electrodes; printed circuit board; sensor;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), 2010 IEEE

Conference_Location

Austin, TX

ISSN

1091-5281

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2832-8

Electronic_ISBN

1091-5281

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IMTC.2010.5488058

Filename

5488058