Optimization of CSRR based RF sensor for detecting ethanol in petrol

This paper reports solvent based optimization of radio frequency (RF) sensors for detecting ethanol mixtures in petrol using complementary split ring resonators (CSRR). The optimization is carried out using binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) in presence of mask by placing the sample under test (SUT) above the highly sensitive CSRR region. The motivation behind this work has been to detect miniscule changes of ethanol in the dielectric constant of the petrol. The RF sensors designed using BPSO enables faster convergence providing more efficient designs offering enhanced sensitivity at a normalized frequency of 2.66% and 1.81% when compared to 1.02% of conventional CSRR as presented in the simulation results.