A glucose concentration sensor for microliter-volume water-glucose solutions is presented. The proposed sensor is composed of an open-loop microstrip resonator with a dielectric liquid holder (5-25-μL volume) glued onto the gap between the line ends. The resonator is coupled to two microstrip lines forming a two-port network whose S-parameter response provide information about the dielectric properties of the liquid under study. Three versions of the sensor at resonant frequencies between 2 and 7 GHz are presented. The sensors are assessed by measuring the complex permittivity of standard liquids reported in the scientific literature. Models of the sensors are presented, which properly match the experimental results. This paper presents an experimental study of the sensors as glucose concentration retrievers. The main novelty is the use of Q factor and the maximum S21 of the resonance as sensing magnitudes. The dependence of these parameters on the glucose concentration of the solutions obeys almost linear relationships. Good sensitivities have been obtained for the proposed sensors, which are coherent with previous works by other authors.

The measurement of glucose concentration finds interesting potential applications in both industry and biomedical contexts. Among the proposed solutions, the use of microwave planar resonant sensors has led to remarkable scientific activity during the last years. These sensors rely on the changes in the dielectric properties of the medium due to variations in the glucose concentration. These devices show electrical responses dependent on the surrounding dielectric properties, and therefore the changes in their response can be related to variations in the glucose content. This work shows an up-to-date review of this sensing approach after more than one decade of research and development. The attempts involved are sorted by the sensing parameter, and the computation of a common relative sensitivity to glucose is proposed as general comparison tool. The manuscript also discusses the key points of each sensor category and the possible future lines and challenges of the sensing approach.

This paper reports on dielectric properties of ternary mixtures involving sodium chloride (NaCl) and sucrose (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁) dissolved into water (H₂O). Broadband electromagnetic characterizations of such mixtures at various concentrations were performed, evidencing a dual behavior made of conductive effects at low frequencies and dipolar relaxation at microwave frequencies. Conductive and dielectric properties resulting from these both effects were integrated into predictive models for variations of Cole–Cole model parameters. Based upon this modelling, an innovative microwave-based sensor able to retrieve concentrations of both sodium chloride and sucrose in ternary aqueous solutions was introduced, designed, realized and assessed. The proposed sensor shows an error lower than 5.5% for concentration ranges of 0 to 154 mmol/L for sodium chloride and 0 to 877 mmol/L for sucrose.

Three microwave sensors are used to track the glucose level of different human blood plasma solutions. In this paper, the sensors are evaluated as glucose trackers in a context close to real human blood. Different plasma solutions sets were prepared from a human blood sample at several added glucose concentrations up to 10 wt%, adding also ascorbic acid and lactic acid at different concentrations. The experimental results for the different sensors/solutions combinations are presented in this work. The sensors show good performance and linearity as glucose level retrievers, although the sensitivities change as the rest of components vary. Different sensor behaviors depending upon the concentrations of glucose and other components are identified and characterized. The results obtained in terms of sensitivity are coherent with previous works, highlighting the contribution of glucose to the dielectric losses of the solution. The results are also consistent with the frequency evolution of the electromagnetic signature of glucose found in the literature, and are helpful for selecting frequency bands for sensing purposes and envisioning future approaches to the challenging measurement in real biological contexts. Discussion of the implications of the results and guidelines for further research and development of more accurate sensors is offered.

A low-cost, additively manufactured, biocompatible glucose sensor based on the changes in the unloaded quality factor ( $Q_{\mathbf {u}}$ ) with a single split-ring resonator is presented. An exposition of the fundamentals for the use of the $Q_{\mathbf {u}}$ as sensing parameter with microwave planar resonant sensors is shown. The convenience of this sensing parameter is analyzed from the theoretical point of view, and practical design and optimization guidelines are inferred with a special focus on the optimization of $Q_{\mathbf {u}}$ sensitivity to glucose concentration. For practical demonstration and experimental assessment, a novel inverted microstrip configuration is considered, built upon a customized structure made with a certified biocompatible material thanks to 3-D printing techniques, which is aimed to provide for a stronger interaction between the electromagnetic fields and the sample. Two metallization solutions are investigated, yielding devices operating at 4.50 and 4.62 GHz, with operating $Q_{\mathbf {u}}$ of 16.36 and 22.00, relative $Q_{\mathbf {u}}$ sensitivities of 1.377 and 2.727, $Q_{\mathbf {u}}$ sensitivities to glucose content within the physiological range of $0.3\times 10^{-3}$ per mg/dL and $0.6\times 10^{-3}$ per mg/dL, sensing areas of approximately $11.7\times8.8$ mm ² and total structure sizes of 950.0 $\times 35.0\times3.5$ mm ³ . The devices show good performance with water–glucose solutions covering a wide range of concentrations, involving physiological as well as industry-related ones.

Accurate characterization of the dielectric properties of solids and, especially, substrates is crucial for circuitry design and development. For applications requiring low cost, wieldy systems, many attempts have been made involving planar resonant microwave devices. However, most of them have a configuration in which the sample is placed onto the substrate. As a novelty, a structure considering the sample placement into a more sensitive area is presented and analyzed in this letter. The design of this kind of sensors is discussed, and the measurement results are presented. The proposed device is shown to be capable of measuring the full complex permittivity of the sample, and the results compare well with other previous attempts.