Title:  Low Cost Printed, Flexible, and Energy Autonomous VAN-ATTA and Carbon-nanotubes-based mm-wave RFID Gas Sensors for Ultra-long Range Ubiquitous IOT and 5G Implementations

Committee: 

Dr. Tentzeris, Advisor  

Dr. Peterson, Chair

Dr. Durgin

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to introduce solutions for long range, ubiquitous, low-cost, and energy autonomous sensing applications. For this purpose, two major and challenging technological aspects are explored independently, and their combination demonstrated. Firstly, the design and performance enhancement of the first reported fully-printed DMMP gas sensor is reported. This type of carbon-nanotubes-based sensor is introduced for the first time, before the modifications of several fabrication parameters, including materials selection and printing schemes are shown to provide more than two orders of magnitude increase in sensor performance and manufacturing repeatability, thereby also shedding light on a more general and significant printed sensors performance-enhancement scheme. The second aspect of the presented work relies on the implementation of mm-wave Van-Atta structures for ultra-long range interrogation. A printed mm-wave humidity-sensing Van-Atta array is introduced to demonstrate this concept, and is shown to provide more than an order-of-magnitude-increase in reading range compared to the current state of the art of chipless RFIDs. Finally, printed chemical sensors and Van-Atta technologies integration is demonstrated in a prototype, providing the first implementation of an energy-autonomous ultra-long-range mm-wave RFID sensor tag. The reported and proposed architectures, enabled by the combination of state of the art Van-Atta array principles, high performance mm-wave components inkjet printing, and carbon-nanomaterials-based printed chemical sensors, may set the foundation for the emergence of 5G-network-compatible ubiquitous low-cost smart-skin electronic noses of the Internet of Things.