Low-cost capacitive humidity sensor for application within flexible RFID labels based on microcontroller systems

Abstract

This paper reports on the fabrication of a capacitive-type relative humidity (RH) sensor using screen printing processes for electrode film deposition. The applied measurement method based on microcontrollers is also reported. In this specific case, the microcontroller is used to measure RH by means of a capacitive sensor with a simple low-cost electronic system. In addition, a comparison between two different types of polyester substrates [Melinex (DuPont) and CG3460 (3M)] is shown. Both polyester substrates have similar properties, and only the thickness is different (175 mu m for Melinex and 100 mu m for CG3460). A nonlineal response has been obtained in this type of sensors. In order to linearize the response and reduce the external hardware, an artificial neural network embedded into the microcontroller has been used. © 2006 IEEE.