DETERMINATION OF MOISTURE CONTENT IN SOIL BASED ON OVEN DRYING METHOD USING A MICROSTRIP PATCH SENSOR

The proposed design is analyzed of a pentagon shape of microstrip sensor for determination the soil moisture measurement. The proposed design is useful in agricultural field as well as measured the moisture with accuracy and it is designed on FR4 substrate with 1.676 thicknesses. Many methods are used for detecting the moisture but oven drying method is very cheap and easy to install. A new 2.3 GHz soil moisture sensor using microstrip transmission line is presented with good return loss -28dB and gain 3.2dB. The main advantages of the proposed sensor will be its high accuracy, quickness of measurement, low cost and ease of implementation. Since the sensor has low power consumption. Motivation/Background: The microstrip moisture sensor is helpful for detecting the moisture content of soil. The proposed patch sensor design is being beneficial in real time agricultural field for the determination of soil moisture content (MC). The actual moisture content in soil is determined using conventional, standard an oven drying method at operating frequency 2.3GHz with compact and low cost. The work has done at frequency range between 1GHz to 2GHz for detecting the soil moisture by using the cavity resonator technique and impedance bridge technique. These techniques are expensive, complex, no more accuracy and time consuming. Method: The proposed design has fabricated on FR4 substrate with 1.676mm thickness. The simulation analysis has carried out with the help of CST software and the experimental values will be measured by vector network analyzer. The experiment will be performed on the samples of soil and the results shows that the proposed method will be able to detect the high moisture content with high sensitivity and accuracy. Results: The proposed design, it will be very helpful for agricultural field because of got the good return loss as well as gain -28dB and 3.2dB at 2.3GHz and it can be fabricated and measured by the vector network analyzer Conclusions: The proposed design is analyzed for detecting the moisture content with the suitable parameters with the help of CST software as well as used the direct (oven drying) method, this is very easy and less time consuming.