Concept and Model of a Metamaterial-Based Passive Wireless Temperature Sensor for Harsh Environment Applications

Wireless passive temperature sensors are receiving increasing attention due to the ever-growing need of improving energy efficient and precise monitoring of temperature in high-temperature energy conversion systems, such as gas turbines and coal-based power plants. Unfortunately, the harsh environment, such as high temperature and corrosive atmosphere present in these systems, has significantly limited the reliability and increased the costs of current solutions. Therefore, this paper presents the concept and design of a low cost, passive, and wireless temperature sensor that can withstand high temperature and harsh environments. The temperature sensor was designed following the principle of metamaterials by utilizing closed ring resonators in a dielectric ceramic matrix. The proposed wireless, passive temperature sensor behaves like an LC circuit, which has a temperature-dependent resonance frequency. Full-wave electromagnetic solver Ansys Ansoft HFSS was used to validate the model and evaluate the effect of different geometry and combination of split ring resonator structures on the sensitivity and electrical sizes of the proposed sensor. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the sensor and provide guidance for future fabrication and testing.