Date of Graduation

12-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Vasundara V. Varadan

Committee Member

Jingxian Wu

Second Committee Member

Reeta Vyas

Keywords

Applied sciences, Pure sciences, Measurement, Metamaterial, RF, Sensor, Strain

Abstract

Strain sensors are used to convert the physical measured quantity of strain into an electrical signal suitable for processing by electronic equipment. Traditional strain sensors are comprised of a thin flexible film with a resistive pattern traced on the surface. As the sensor is deformed, the electrical resistance changes proportionally, giving a direct measure of the strain incurred. Metamaterials, particularly split ring resonators (SRR), lend themselves as a valuable tool for sensing applications due to their highly resonant nature and their very narrow bandwidth (high Q-factor). Due to very high field localization effects, they are extremely sensitive to both the dielectric properties of the materials they are deposited on and in close proximity to, allowing for a high degree of tunability. The benefit of using metamaterials as a sensor lies in the fact that as a microwave device, they can be used to realize passive wireless sensors as compared to the current technology which requires supporting circuitry to measure and transmit data. This thesis will address the feasibility of implementing a metamaterial based strain sensor that exploits the tunable nature of the SRR as it is calibrated with a traditional resistive strain sensor and then applied to quantify the strain incurred on a loaded cantilever beam.

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