Radio-frequency passive wireless sensing for agricultural applications Anne-Marie Zaccarin

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Zaccarin, Anne-Marie, author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. Electrical and Systems Engineering., degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electrical engineering.

Nanotechnology.

Engineering.

Communication.

Agricultural engineering.

0544.

0652.

0459.

0537.

0539.

Local Subjects:

Electrical engineering.

Nanotechnology.

Engineering.

Communication.

Agricultural engineering.

0544.

0652.

0459.

0537.

0539.

Genre:

Academic theses

Physical Description:

1 online resource (119 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 87-12A

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2026

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Inefficiencies in current agriculture practices result in the overuse of scarce resources, while limiting achievable crop yield. Current commercial soil monitoring technology is prohibitively expensive, or provides few sparse measurements that are insufficient to gain precise knowledge of soil properties across an agricultural field. Precision agriculture systems can lead to a more judicious use of agriculture resources and enable higher crop yield. This thesis will focus on the design, development and demonstration of a radio-frequency, long-range passive sensing platform that enables low-cost biodegradable sub-surface soil sensor nodes. Capacitive soil moisture sensors are designed to be integrated directly at radio-frequency. To keep costs low, the sensors are designed to be screen-printed on a biodegradable substrate. Their sensitivity to changes in soil moisture is characterized while using radio-frequency probes. To further characterize their performance, the capacitive sensors are integrated with an inductive loop antenna, which enables short-range wireless interrogation. Changes in soil moisture are encoded as changes in resonant frequency. The long-term performance of these wireless soil moisture sensors in a potted plant is studied. The limited interrogation range of the sensor nodes limits their usefulness in outdoor agricultural settings. To increase the wireless sensor nodes' interrogation range, a new interrogation mechanism is explored. A time-gated transceiver for backscatter interrogation is assembled. The importance of high quality factor sensor nodes and the potential of microacoustic resonators to obtain high quality factor is established. Using the time-gated transceiver, a commercial micro-acoustic resonator is interrogated outdoors at distances up to 6 m. To enable long-range frequency-coded sensing, double patterned Lamb-wave microacoustic resonators are designed and fabricated in a commercial shuttle run. A resonator is integrated in simulation with a capacitive sensor, where a 25% change in soil moisture causes a 6.21 MHz shift in the sensor node's resonant frequency. The fabricated Lamb-wave resonators have quality factors of 600, which inhibits their long-range interrogation. Multi-layer shear-horizontal surface acoustic wave resonators are designed and fabricated to obtain larger quality factors. The fabricated spurious-mode free surface acoustic wave resonators have quality factors almost twice as large as the Lamb-wave resonators. The surface acoustic wave resonators are integrated to a wireless sensor node using surface mount capacitors as a place-holder for soil moisture sensors. The wireless sensor node is successfully interrogated in the far field, where its resonant frequency is detected, and shown to change with capacitance

Notes:

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-12, Section: A.

Advisors: Olsson, Roy H., III Committee members: Allen, Mark G.; Kagan, Cherie; Turner, Kevin T.

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2026

Vendor supplied data

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798247973331

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license