UWB-sensors in food quality management — the way from the concept to market

A long and well known subfield of the ultra-wideband technology is the time-domain-reflectometry (TDR), which found its ways in a wide field of applications. This paper describes different aspects regarding the way from the first concept of a TDR prototype instrument towards a fully engineered device, suitable for food quality management in an industrial scale. The concept of the described TDR widely depends on the frequency range of the task to be solved, thus is one of the most important aspects in the chain of development. Furthermore industrial requirements with respect to handling of the device and the integration in existing systems have to be kept in mind.