Unorthodox technique in sensing with the metamaterial-based resonator sensor at millimetre frequencies

Abstract

A metamaterial-based resonator is presented in this paper for liquid-sensing applications. The designed sensor operates at millimetre-wave (mm-w) frequencies, and it can characterise the samples that may possess identical characteristics. This paper relies on the extracted permittivity of the structure in the characterisation of the samples, mainly liquids. The sensor requires a very small amount of samples for sensing and it is used in distinguishing oil, ethanol, methanol, glycerol and water. A shift in the resonance frequency of about 200 MHz per unit increase in the epsilon value of samples was achieved. The oil sample showed the lowest value in the extracted permittivity value, while water showed the nearest to zero extracted permittivity. This relationship of variation in extracted permittivity parameter with the change in the sample’s epsilon value is found to be linear and reliable regardless of the change in thickness of the sample.