A microwave system for relative humidity measurement

This paper deals with a microwave hygrometer that is based on the sensitivity of air permittivity to humidity. The hygrometer embeds a microwave generator which feeds two different channels. A channel is a holed waveguide, whose permittivity depends on the air humidity, while the other channel is insensitive to the air humidity. The output signals of the two channels are suitably combined in order to obtain the corresponding phase angle, which depends on the permittivity of the air inside the holed waveguide and therefore on the air humidity. Two possible implementations of the proposed principle are described which permit one to obtain an uncertainty of a few percentage of relative humidity in the humidity range of 10% RH to 90% RH and in the temperature range of 5/spl deg/C to 40/spl deg/C, but with different costs and complexities. The main characteristics of the proposed sensor are a fast response, a low sensitivity with respect to air pollution and the absence of hysteresis phenomena.