Reference-Incorporating Microwave Resonator-Based Sensors for Biological Sensing Applications

Use of microwave resonator-based sensors is a relatively new approach for the detection of biological reagents. Sensing mechanism is based on the tracking of the resonant frequency on electromagnetic resonator. Resonant frequency depends on structure geometry and material but is also affected by secondary changes in environment. Addition of a reference resonator to suppress these effects is proposed in this work. Identical sensor structures designed at 2 GHz, fabricated using low-cost processes are used in experiments to demonstrate the use of a resonator pair for sensing of glucose in solutions, yielding a sensitivity of 34.72 MHz/ (mg/mL).