Nondestructive maturity determination of durian by using microwave moisture sensing

Since durian has specific properties, such as the thickness of peel, non-uniform shape, rough skin, etc., the nondestructive determination of the maturity is hard to perform. Microwaves are high frequency waves which have better penetration than other lower frequency waves. The paper proposes a simple and inexpensive microwave technique by using an optimal open-ended coaxial probe which operates at 3 GHz which matches the design of a coaxial probe and durian. In this experiment, 3GHz of microwave with low power gets the best response output. The system operates with a network analyzer whose the magnitude of reflection coefficient shows linear correlation to moisture content of durian. The result of % moisture content is compared to % dry-weight of durian in an oven. This nondestructive technique shows great promise for maturity determination of durian.