Planar Microwave Sensors

Submission Deadline:  31 May 2025

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Planar Microwave Sensors.   

This Special Section of IEEE Access is focused on Planar Microwave Sensors, a topic of growing research interest. Within today’s paradigms of the Internet of Things (IoT), the Fourth Industrial Revolution (also known as Industry 4.0), and the Digital Transformation (or Smart World), there is an increasing demand for cost-effective, small-sized, and smart sensors and sensor networks, to be applied in a wide diversity of scenarios, such as Smart Cities, Smart Health, Smart Agriculture, Civil Engineering, Structural Health Monitoring, Biosensing, Agrifood Industry, Security, Motion Control, Automotive Industry, and Space, etc. There are many sensing technologies (e.g., optics/photonics, acoustics, electrochemical, etc.), but RF/microwaves (extending the spectrum from UHF up to THz frequencies) offer a series of unique advantages aligned with the requirements of the above-cited paradigmatic concepts. Thus, besides their low cost and size, microwave sensors, and particularly planar sensors, can be implemented in flexible substrates, including plastics, organic substrates, and even fabric, by means of subtractive (etching) or additive (printing) processes, and they are also compatible with other technologies of interest for sensing, such as microfluidics, micromachining, 3D-printing, etc. Additionally, microwaves are very sensitive to the electromagnetic properties of the materials with which they interact. Thus, microwave sensors are very useful for the dielectric characterization of materials (solids or liquids), and for the measurement of many physical, chemical, and biological variables related to material permittivity.

Planar microwave sensors can operate by contact or contactless with the material under test (MUT), or analyte, and can be wirelessly connected to the reader (of interest in many IoT applications), in schemes based on the so-called sensing tags (which act as a “smart skin,” able to provide information of the material or sample under study). Another important aspect of planar sensors is that the necessary associated electronics for signal generation, processing, and communication purposes can be seamlessly integrated within the sensor’s substrate, representing a reduction in system costs and complexity. In summary, planar microwave sensors constitute an enabling technology for the deployment of the IoT, Industry 4.0, and Smart World, where sensing is necessary to obtain information of the system under consideration, in order to gain insight on its current state and take appropriate decisions and actions (either through human intervention or autonomously) when necessary.

The main objective of this Special Section of IEEE Access is to publish high-quality papers related to the theory, techniques, technologies, and applications of planar microwave sensors.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Sensor Phenomenology, modeling, and evaluation
  • Sensitivity, resolution, and selectivity optimization techniques
  • Dielectric characterization and permittivity sensors
  • Resonant and non-resonant planar sensors
  • Contactless, nonintrusive, and non-invasive sensors
  • Liquid and microfluidic sensors
  • Physical sensors (displacement and proximity, temperature, humidity, pressure, etc.).
  • Chemical sensors (gas detection, impurity detection in liquids, etc.).
  • Biosensors (bacterial growth, glucose measurements, electrolyte content measurements, cells and organs analysis, etc.) for in vitro and in vivo investigations.
  • Microwave spectroscopy
  • Wireless sensors, RFID sensors, and sensor networks
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related techniques applied to planar microwave sensors
  • New materials and technologies for microwave sensing
  • Active planar sensors
  • “Green” sensors
  • Sensor systems and applications
    • Sensors for structural health monitoring (SHM)
    • Sensors for smart agriculture and agrifood industry
    • Sensors for smart Cities
    • Sensors for civil engineering
    • Sensors for smart industry
    • Sensors for smart healthcare and vital signs monitoring
    • Sensors for motion control
    • Sensors for automotive and space industry
    • Wearable sensors

 

We also highly recommend the submission of a video with each article as it significantly increases the visibility of articles.

Lead Editor: Ferran Martín, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Guest Editors:

    1. Katia Grenier, LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France
    2. Amir Ebrahimi, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
    3. Mohammad Zarifi, University of British Columbia, Canada
    4. Carlos G. Juan, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche, Spain

 

IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Derek Abbott, University of Adelaide

Article submission: Submit manuscripts to: http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For information regarding IEEE Access, including its peer review policies and APC information, please visit the website http://ieeeaccess.ieee.org

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: Ferran.Martin@uab.cat.