Quality factor effect on the wireless range of microstrip patch antenna strain sensors

Ali Daliri; Amir Galehdar; Wayne S T Rowe; Sabu John; Chun H Wang; Kamran Ghorbani

doi:10.3390/s140100595

Quality factor effect on the wireless range of microstrip patch antenna strain sensors

Sensors (Basel). 2014 Jan 2;14(1):595-605. doi: 10.3390/s140100595.

Authors

Ali Daliri¹, Amir Galehdar², Wayne S T Rowe³, Sabu John⁴, Chun H Wang⁵, Kamran Ghorbani⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. ali.daliri@rmit.edu.au.
² School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. amir.galehdar@dsto.defence.gov.au.
³ School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. wayne.rowe@rmit.edu.au.
⁴ School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, PO Box 71, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia. sabu.john@rmit.edu.au.
⁵ School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, PO Box 71, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia. chun.wang@rmit.edu.au.
⁶ School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. kamran.ghorbani@rmit.edu.au.

Abstract

Recently introduced passive wireless strain sensors based on microstrip patch antennas have shown great potential for reliable health and usage monitoring in aerospace and civil industries. However, the wireless interrogation range of these sensors is limited to few centimeters, which restricts their practical application. This paper presents an investigation on the effect of circular microstrip patch antenna (CMPA) design on the quality factor and the maximum practical wireless reading range of the sensor. The results reveal that by using appropriate substrate materials the interrogation distance of the CMPA sensor can be increased four-fold, from the previously reported 5 to 20 cm, thus improving considerably the viability of this type of wireless sensors for strain measurement and damage detection.