Homodyne vector network analysis as a tool for the real-time measurement of electrical material parameter distributions in the field

2020 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-188
Author(s):  
Ronny Peter ◽  
Gerhard Fischerauer
Keyword(s):  
Material Parameter ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Shape Factors ◽  
Measurement Systems ◽  
Real Time Measurement ◽  
Vector Network Analyzers ◽  
Network Analyzers ◽  
Electromagnetic Resonances ◽  
Parameter Distributions

AbstractThe spatial distribution of electrical material parameters (e. g. permittivity and conductivity) can be a valuable indicator of the state of a chemical process or the condition of the processing system. Unfortunately, there are very few measurement systems that could handle this task in the field at low cost and with small shape factors. A potential solution currently under research for the determination of material parameter distributions is based on electromagnetic resonances inside chemical reactors. In the laboratory, vector network analyzers (VNA) and personal computers are used, which is expensive. This contribution reports on an application-specific stand-alone homodyne VNA with integrated data processing as an effort to transfer the laboratory-proven method to the field. The quality of the approach, validated by comparison with commercial VNAs, is shown to suffice for typical field applications.

scholarly journals Reference Breast Phantoms for Low-Cost Microwave Imaging

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-415
Author(s):  
Emine Avşar Aydin ◽  
Selin Yabaci Karaoğlan
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Microwave Frequency ◽  
Biological Tissues ◽  
Microwave Imaging ◽  
Vector Network Analyzers ◽  
Network Analyzers ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Breast Phantoms ◽  
Inverse Radon Transform

Microwave imaging provides an alternative method for breast cancer screening and the diagnosis of cerebrovascular accidents. Before a surgical operation, the performance of microwave imaging systems should be evaluated on anatomically detailed anthropomorphic phantoms. This paper puts forward the advances in the development of breast phantoms based on 3D printing structures filled with liquid solutions that mimic biological tissues in terms of complex permittivity in a wide microwave frequency band. In this paper; four different experimental scenarios were created, and measurements were performed, and although there are many vector network analyzers on the market, the miniVNA used in this study has been shown to have potential in many biomedical applications such as portable computer-based breast cancer detection studies. We especially investigated the reproducibility of a particular mixture and the ability of some mixes to mimic various breast tissues. Afterwards, the images similar to the experimentally created scenarios were obtained by implementing the inverse radon transform to the obtained data.

scholarly journals A Low-Cost Electronic System for Human-Body Communication

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1928
Author(s):  
Adriano Vale-Cardoso ◽  
Mariana Moreira ◽  
Kristtopher Kayo Coelho ◽  
Alex Vieira ◽  
Aldri Santos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Electronic System ◽  
Sensors And Actuators ◽  
Body Tissues ◽  
Communication Circuits ◽  
Adhesive Surface ◽  
Vector Network Analyzers ◽  
Network Analyzers ◽  
Human Body Communication

Human-body communication (HBC) has increasingly gained attention from academia and industry. Most current works focus on characterizing the use of human-body tissues as a physical medium to enable reliable communication. However, designing coupling hardware and communication circuits for reliable data transmission (e.g., high throughput and low latency) is a demanding task, especially for achieving a compact full electronic implementation. For this purpose, there are few commercial devices, mainly differential probes and balun transformers, employed with electrical analysis instruments such as oscilloscopes and vector network analyzers. Although these devices are widely used, they are expensive and are difficult to miniaturize and integrate into real-world HBC-specific applications (e.g., data security). This article presents a low-cost electronic system that transfers collected data using a secondary channel: the ionic environment (the primary channel would be the wireless environment). We design an electronic system as an experimental setup for studying HBC, allowing the communication between instruments, sensors, and actuators by human-body tissues. The experimental evaluation of the proposed system follows (i) a phantom composed of saline (0.9%) and (ii) a real human forearm through adhesive surface electrodes.

scholarly journals A Low-Cost and Compact Three-Dimensional Microwave Holographic Imaging System

Electronics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hailun Wu ◽  
Reza K. Amineh
Keyword(s):  
Imaging System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Microwave Imaging ◽  
Destructive Testing ◽  
Holographic Imaging ◽  
Compact Size ◽  
Vector Network Analyzers ◽  
Network Analyzers

With the significant growth in the use of non-metallic composite materials, the demands for new and robust non-destructive testing methodologies is high. Microwave imaging has attracted a lot of attention recently for such applications. This is in addition to the biomedical imaging applications of microwave that are also being pursued actively. Among these efforts, in this paper, we propose a compact and cost-effective three-dimensional microwave imaging system based on a fast and robust holographic technique. For this purpose, we employ narrow-band microwave data, instead of wideband data used in previous three-dimensional cylindrical holographic imaging systems. Three-dimensional imaging is accomplished by using an array of receiver antennas surrounding the object and scanning that along with a transmitter antenna over a cylindrical aperture. To achieve low cost and compact size, we employ off-the-shelf components to build a data acquisition system replacing the costly and bulky vector network analyzers. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the proposed imaging system. We also show the effect of number of frequencies and size of the objects on the quality of reconstructed images.

scholarly journals Remote Reflectivity Sensor for Industrial Applications

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1301
Author(s):  
Federico Cavedo ◽  
Parisa Esmaili ◽  
Michele Norgia
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Interference Immunity ◽  
Surface Reflection ◽  
Measurement Systems ◽  
Digital Detector ◽  
Reflected Light ◽  
Surface Optical ◽  
Diffused Light

A low-cost optical reflectivity sensor is proposed in this paper, able to detect the presence of objects or surface optical properties variations, at a distance of up to 20 m. A collimated laser beam is pulsed at 10 kHz, and a synchronous digital detector coherently measures the back-diffused light collected through a 1-inch biconvex lens. The sensor is a cost-effective solution for punctual measurement of the surface reflection at different distances. To enhance the interference immunity, an algorithm based on a double-side digital baseline restorer is proposed and implemented to accurately detect the amplitude of the reflected light. As results show, the sensor is robust against ambient light and shows a strong sensitivity on a wide reflection range. The capability of the proposed sensor was evaluated experimentally for object detection and recognition, in addition to dedicated measurement systems, like remote encoders or keyphasors, realized far from the object to be measured.

scholarly journals Status Estimation and In-Process Connection of Kanbans Using BLE Beacons and LPWA Network to Implement Intra-Traceability for the Kanban System

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5038
Author(s):  
Kosuke Shima ◽  
Masahiro Yamaguchi ◽  
Takumi Yoshida ◽  
Takanobu Otsuka
Keyword(s):  
Inventory Management ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Computational Cost ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
Manufacturing Strategy ◽  
Implementation Cost ◽  
Measurement Systems ◽  
Process Route ◽  
Kanban System ◽  
Low Computational Cost

IoT-based measurement systems for manufacturing have been widely implemented. As components that can be implemented at low cost, BLE beacons have been used in several systems developed in previous research. In this work, we focus on the Kanban system, which is a measure used in manufacturing strategy. The Kanban system emphasizes inventory management and is used to produce only required amounts. In the Kanban system, the Kanban cards are rotated through the factory along with the products, and when the products change to a different process route, the Kanban card is removed from the products and the products are assigned to another Kanban. For this reason, a single Kanban cannot trace products from plan to completion. In this work, we propose a system that uses a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacon to connect Kanbans in different routes but assigned to the same products. The proposed method estimates the beacon status of whether the Kanban is inside or outside a postbox, which can then be computed by a micro controller at low computational cost. In addition, the system connects the Kanbans using the beacons as paired connection targets. In an experiment, we confirmed that the system connected 70% of the beacons accurately. We also confirmed that the system could connect the Kanbans at a small implementation cost.

scholarly journals A Cotton Module Feeder Plastic Contamination Inspection System

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-293
Author(s):  
Mathew G. Pelletier ◽  
Greg A. Holt ◽  
John D. Wanjura
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Technical Note ◽  
Inspection System ◽  
Learning Program ◽  
Cotton Lint ◽  
Cotton Industry ◽  
Bill Of Materials ◽  
The U.S

The removal of plastic contamination in cotton lint is an issue of top priority to the U.S. cotton industry. One of the main sources of plastic contamination showing up in marketable cotton bales, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s classing office, is plastic from the module wrap used to wrap cotton modules produced by the new John Deere round module harvesters. Despite diligent efforts by cotton ginning personnel to remove all plastic encountered during unwrapping of the seed cotton modules, plastic still finds a way into the cotton gin’s processing system. To help mitigate plastic contamination at the gin; an inspection system was developed that utilized low-cost color cameras to see plastic on the module feeder’s dispersing cylinders, that are normally hidden from view by the incoming feed of cotton modules. This technical note presents the design of an automated intelligent machine-vision guided cotton module-feeder inspection system. The system includes a machine-learning program that automatically detects plastic contamination in order to alert the cotton gin personnel as to the presence of plastic contamination on the module feeder’s dispersing cylinders. The system was tested throughout the entire 2019 cotton ginning season at two commercial cotton gins and at one gin in the 2018 ginning season. This note describes the over-all system and mechanical design and provides an over-view and coverage of key relevant issues. Included as an attachment to this technical note are all the mechanical engineering design files as well as the bill-of-materials part source list. A discussion of the observational impact the system had on reduction of plastic contamination is also addressed.

scholarly journals A Natural Language Processing System for Extracting Evidence of Drug Repurposing from Scientific Publications

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (08) ◽  
pp. 13369-13381
Author(s):  
Shivashankar Subramanian ◽  
Ioana Baldini ◽  
Sushma Ravichandran ◽  
Dmitriy A. Katz-Rogozhnikov ◽  
Karthikeyan Natesan Ramamurthy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Generic Drugs ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Drug Repurposing ◽  
Cancer Type ◽  
Entity Extraction ◽  
Scientific Publications

More than 200 generic drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for non-cancer indications have shown promise for treating cancer. Due to their long history of safe patient use, low cost, and widespread availability, repurposing of these drugs represents a major opportunity to rapidly improve outcomes for cancer patients and reduce healthcare costs. In many cases, there is already evidence of efficacy for cancer, but trying to manually extract such evidence from the scientific literature is intractable. In this emerging applications paper, we introduce a system to automate non-cancer generic drug evidence extraction from PubMed abstracts. Our primary contribution is to define the natural language processing pipeline required to obtain such evidence, comprising the following modules: querying, filtering, cancer type entity extraction, therapeutic association classification, and study type classification. Using the subject matter expertise on our team, we create our own datasets for these specialized domain-specific tasks. We obtain promising performance in each of the modules by utilizing modern language processing techniques and plan to treat them as baseline approaches for future improvement of individual components.

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