IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 18, NO.

4, FEBRUARY 15, 2018 1755

Applying Metamaterial-Based Repeater in LC

Passive Wireless Sensors to Enhance Readout
Lei Dong, Member, IEEE, Li-Feng Wang, Member, IEEE, and Qing-An Huang, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract— Inductor–capacitor (LC) passive wireless sensors

allow for a continuous, real-time monitoring for various para-
meters of interest in situations, where wired connections are
difficult or even impossible. However, geometrical constraints
reduce the magnetic coupling between the sensor and the
readout coil, resulting in a limited interrogation distance. Here,
we propose a left-handed metamaterial as a repeater to enhance
the readout of the LC passive wireless sensors. The left-handed
metamaterial consists of double-side square spirals and possesses
negative relative permeability. The operating frequency of the
left-metamaterial is designed adjustable to cover the frequency
spectrum of the sensor. By monitoring the relative humidity as an Fig. 1. Planar array of double-side square spirals with negative permeability.
example, we have demonstrated that the readout distance with the
left-handed metamaterial can achieve nearly 1.8 times as long as
that without metamaterial, while keeping their signal strength
from limited interrogating distance. A left-handed metamater-
and sensitivity the same. Overall, this strategy through the ial (LHM) slab with negative index can enhance the amplitude
metamaterials-based repeaters represents an effective approach of the evanescent waves and improve the coupling coefficient.
for enhancing the readout. It has been used in the wireless power transfer system to
Index Terms— Metamaterial, passive wireless sensor, readout improve the transfer efficiency at 27 MHz [8]. However, the
enhancement. working frequency is fixed which is not suitable in application
of sensors. Other methods, for example, adding a repeater
between the readout coil and the LC sensor [9], [10], will cause
I. I NTRODUCTION frequency splitting and sensitivity decline. When applying the

I NDUCTOR-CAPACITOR (LC) sensors have advantages in

harsh environments due to the wireless connections [1].
The LC sensor is constructed from a spiral inductor connected
with a sensing capacitor, forming a resonant LC tank. Signals
of LC sensors are wirelessly and remotely measured by the
approaching readout coil, which makes them highly useful
in situations that require the sensor to be powered remotely
with a small volume. Recent years, the LC sensors have been
springing up in various applications, including the environment
measurements (such as humidity [2], temperature [3], and
pressure [4]), the biological monitoring [5], [6], and even some
portable devices [7].
For microelectromechanical system (MEMS) applications,
the size of LC sensors has been scaled down. However, this
makes more dispersion of the magnetic fields between the
sensor and the readout coil, and the LC sensors hence suffer
Manuscript received November 27, 2017; revised December 25, 2017;
accepted December 26, 2017. Date of publication December 29, 2017;
date of current version January 18, 2018. This work was supported by
the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61401084,
in part by the National High Technology Development Program of China
under Grant 2015AA042602, and in part by the New Teacher Start-up
Fund of Southeast University under Grant 1106007129. The associate editor
coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was
Prof. Danilo Demarchi. (Corresponding author: Qing-An Huang.)
The authors are with the Key Laboratory of MEMS of the Min-
istry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China (e-mail:
hqa@seu.edu.cn).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2017.2787984
1558-1748 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
adaptive repeater, an extra power supply or a readout equip-
ment with transmitting power is needed [11], [12]. Consider-
ing the low power consumption and the simple construction
of the sensor system, the LHM is very potential in LC sensor
system.
A simulation about LHM applied in LC sensor system
is presented in [13], but no experimental results have been
studied. This letter is about work lucubrated on the concrete
performance of the left-handed metamaterial. The operat-
ing frequency of the left-handed metamaterial is designed
adjustable to satisfy the frequency domain of the LC sensor.
In experiments, a specific double-side square spiral with
an adjustable capacitor works as the metamaterial unit cell.
An array of the metallic structures constitutes the left-handed
metamaterial. An LC-type humidity sensor, as an example,
is finally measured and compared with and without the LHM
slab, respectively.
II. L EFT-H ANDED M ETAMATERIAL
Left-handed metamaterials are realized by some specific
structures in which the measured effective permittivity and the
effective permeability can be negative [14]. Generally, a left-
handed metamaterial requires both effective permittivity and
permeability to be negative. However, in deep subwavelength,
the electric field and magnetic field decouple to simplify
the situation: only one parameter needs to be negative [15].
1756
Fig. 2. LHM simulation in ADS. (a) Collaborative simulation of the LC
sensor in ADS. (b) The resonant points of two situations: one is without
an LHM slab (blue squares), another is with an LHM slab (red dots). The
capacitance is increased from 8 pF to 32 pF with a step of 4 pF.
This change simplifies the structure of the metamaterials, and
can be applied to the LC sensor readout system which is based
on magnetic coupling.
A medium composed by a periodic array of split-ring
resonators (SRRs) gives a negative effective permeability μe f f
within a certain fixed working frequency. The construction of
the two-layer metallic inductor is displayed in Fig. 1. In this
design, the two-layer metallic inductor is connected by a
metallic via. In general, the working frequency of LHM is
fixed. However, when used in LC sensor system, the working
frequency has to be variable to adapt to the sensing range.
A capacitor is then connected to the two-layer inductor to
change the working frequency of the LHM and make the
frequency band with negative permeability cover the frequency
spectrum of the sensor appropriately.
A simple simulation is conducted in ADS 2014 to verify the
performance of LHM slab in enhancing the readout. A layout
containing a readout coil, a sensor inductor is built at first.
The out diameter of both coil is 10 mm, and the readout
coil has 3 turns of coils and the sensor coil has 7 coils. The
distance between them is 14 mm. Then the results and the
symbol are imported into the schematic window to construct
a collaborative simulation. A readout term is connected to
the readout coil with a 50 impedance. A discrete capacitor
element is connected to the sensor coil acting as the sensitive
capacitance in LC sensor as Fig. 2(a) shows. The capacitance
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 18, NO. 4, FEBRUARY 15, 2018
Fig. 3. Demonstration of the LHM slab and test setup.
is increased from 8 pF to 32 pF with a step of 4 pF, then the
resonant frequency is decreased as shown in Fig. 2(b).
Then an LHM slab with nine unit cells is placed between
them. The out diameter of each cell is 5 mm, and the number
of turns is seven. Nine discrete capacitors are linked with the
nine unit cells respectively. In the two situations with/without
the LHM slab, the sensor coils and the external capacitor
are completely the same to ensure the LC tank remains
the same resonant frequency. Parameter S11 is used here to
indicate the signal strength the readout coil receives from the
LC tank. In most reported works, the non-contact detection
of the resonant frequency of the LC-type passive wireless
sensor is achieved through the phase or the S11 dip, and the
S11 parameter would drop to the minimum at the resonant
frequency [16]. The S11 parameter can be expressed as

Z in − Z 0 
S11 = . (1)
Z in + Z 0  Z 0 =50 
The S11 parameter is obtained in both situations above and
the resonant points are extracted to be analyzed in Fig. 2(b).
The blue squares are results without an LHM slab, the red dots
are resonant points with an LHM slab. Both the two curves
share the same variable capacitance as stated above. The signal
strength (magnitude of S11) is increased when the LHM slab
is inserted into the system. What’s more, the enhancement
performance is uniform in the whole frequency spectrum. In
the simulation, the working band of the LHM is adjusted to
the appropriate value to adapt to the LC sensor at first step,
which is discussed in [13].
Though the enhance performance in simulation has been
discussed in [13], this paper has extended the number of unit
cells in LHM slab to nine. Increasing the number of unit
cells contributes to the further improvement in readout, which
can be derived from the magnitude of S11 parameter in the
resonant points.
Then the LHM is fabricated on a PCB substrate. The 7-turn
copper spirals are printed anticlockwise on the top layer of
PCB board and extended to the bottom layer by a metallic via
as shown in Fig. 3. The strip width is 150 μm and separation
between adjacent loops is 100 μm. The width of the structure
is 6.7 mm, and the unit cell is 7.5 mm, which means the
separation between the unit cell is 0.8mm. Each unit cell has
6.5 turns of coils. The two metallic layers are separated by the
0.5 mm thick substrate, and the whole thickness of the LHM
slab is about 0.5 mm as a result. Nine such unit cells constitute
an LHM slab with negative permeability. The dimension is
decided by the whole size of the slab to make it compatible
with the sensor system.
DONG et al.: APPLYING METAMATERIAL-BASED REPEATER IN LC PASSIVE WIRELESS SENSORS TO ENHANCE READOUT
Fig. 4. S parameters of the LHM slab.
Fig. 5. The effective permeability is computed by using S parameters.
A discrete capacitor (31 pF) is connected to the inductor to
alter the resonant frequency, and hence to adjust the spectrum
of negative part. The capacitance is selected as 31 pF to set the
resonant frequency of the LHM slab at 29.8 MHz (this option
ensures the appropriate frequency part with negative real
permeability covering the frequency spectrum of the sensor).
The effective permeability μe f f is then calculated by usingS11
and S21 parameters as below with the condition that the size of
the unit cell is small enough compared with wavelength [17],
 diameter as 10 mm. The line width is 150 μm, and the
(1 + S11 )2 − S21 2
Z = , (2)
(1 − S11 )2 − S21 2
 
1 1 − S11 2 + S21 2
n= acos , (3)
kd 2 × S21
μe f f = n × Z , (4)
where k denotes the wave number and d is the effective
thickness of metamaterial. The effective permeability is then
computed by using the S11 and S21 parameters, and the real
part of μe f f shows a negative part close to its resonance.
It changes the resonant frequency by altering the capacitor
connected to the metallic inductor, and hence adjusts the
spectrum of negative part. The real part of effective per-
meability μe f f is then calculated and the curve is shown
in Fig. 5. The point where Re(μe f f ) = −1 is essential, as the
medium is a perfect match to free space and the interface
shows no reflection. The metamaterial with a larger absolute
value of μe f f can also achieve evanescent wave amplification.
However, this causes higher dielectric loss and magnetic loss
in metamaterials [18].
1757
Fig. 6. Wireless sensing of the LC humidity sensor. (a) Measurement setup.
The LC humidity sensor is wireless interrogated by a readout coil at a distance
of 7mm. (b) The frequency response of the LC humidity sensor.
III. W IRELESS S ENSING OF AN LC H UMIDITY S ENSOR
To verify the performance of the LHM in wireless inter-
rogating system, a relative humidity sensor is detected both
with and without an LHM slab. The LC type humidity sensor
consists of a capacitive sensor and an inductor made in
PCB. The inductor consists 7 turns of loops with the outer
separation is 100 μm. The substrate of the PCB is about
1 mm thick. The inter-digital capacitor is fabricated by the
3 μm standard CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon)
technology and MEMS post processing step [19]. In the
experiments, the graphene oxide is deposited on the capacitor.
When the ambient humidity is changed, the dielectric constant
of graphene oxide varies, which leads to the variation of the
capacitance.
The frequency response of the LC humidity sensor is
detected by Agilent N5224A PNA Network Analyzer (PNA).
A 3-turn 15mm-diameter coil serves as the readout coil. The
readout coil and the LC sensor are attached to two moveable
holders on the displacement platform, respectively.
In fact, there two methods to show the enhancing perfor-
mance. One method is to fix the readout distance, and then
to check the signal received at the readout terminal (S11
amplitude). When the signal is stronger, the enhancing perfor-
mance is better. Another method is to fix the signal strength
(S11 amplitude) and check out the readout distance. When
the readout distance is longer, the enhancing performance is
better. In the experiments, the signal strength (S11 amplitude)
1758
Fig. 7. Humidity sensor interrogation with an LHM slab. (a) The frequency
response of the LC humidity sensor with an LHM slab. The inset is the
measurement setup. (b) The resonance points with and without LHM.
is maintained unchanged, the readout distance of the sensors
with/without a metamaterial slab is compared to show the
improvement.
The humidity sensor is first monitored as shown in Fig. 6(a).
The humidity level is controlled by a humidity test chamber
OMEGA 205. The relative humidity is varied from 15 %RH
to 90 %RH (25 °C). The distance between the sensor and
the readout coil is 7mm. Fig. 6(b) gives the frequency
response of the LC humidity sensor with the sensitivity as
−34.67 kHz/%RH.
An LHM slab is then added between the LC sensor and
the readout coil. The measurement setup is shown as the inset
in Fig. 7(a). The distance between the LHM and the readout
coil is 5 mm, and the distance between the LHM and the sensor
is 7.5 mm. The distance is designed to keep the S11 value
closet to the former data that are without LHM slab. Hence,
the readout distance is extended to 12.5 mm after adding an
LHM slab. The large peak at 30 MHz belongs to the LHM
slab. Due to the relative location, the LHM slab is closer to
the readout coil than the LC sensor, hence the signal strength
(S11 value) is much stronger than the sensor’s.
Now the total distance between the readout coil and the LC
sensor is increased, while the signal strength (magnitude of
S11) is kept unchanged. To have a detailed view of the S11
values in the two situations mentioned above, the resonance
point of each curve is then extracted to have a comparison
between the received signal with and without an LHM as
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 18, NO. 4, FEBRUARY 15, 2018
TABLE I
C OMPARISON W ITH O THER LC S ENSORS
shown in Fig. 7(b). The gap between the blue squares (without
LHM) and red dots (with LHM) is the signal strength differ-
ence received at the readout terminal. The enhancing effect
stays almost consistent during all the frequency spectrum of
the sensor. Frequency shift, which is due to frequency splitting
as analyzed in [10] and [11], does not happen here. Hence,
the measured sensitivity of the system with an LHM slab is
kept around −34.67 kHz/%RH.
According to Fig. 5, the real part of effective permeability
of the LHM slab has a value of −1 at 35.4 MHz, and the
point is also marked in Fig. 7(b). It is worth to notice that the
signal strength difference becomes great near Re(μe f f ) = −1.
This means the metamaterial with Re(μe f f ) = −1 has a better
enhancement performance due to less dielectric loss and mag-
netic loss. Hence, setting the frequency with Re(μe f f ) = −1
of the LHM at the center of the frequency spectrum of LC
sensor maintains a harmonious enhancement in the whole
working range of the sensor.
IV. D ISCUSSIONS AND C ONCLUSION
There have been several methods by using a relay/repeater
to enhance the readout. A comparison between the LC sensors
in this paper with and without a metamaterial slab and other
LC humidity sensors in [11] and [12] are listed in Table I when
the humidity is 15%RH. To show the exact influences brought
by the relay/repeater, the comparison has only adopted several
results that are measured in the same circumstances, including
the inductor size, testing environment, the Q factor of LC
sensor, and the signal received. From the series of research
work in Table I, it is obvious that the LHM slab is not the one
with optimal performance in readout enhancement, but it is the
energy-efficient one. No extra power is required in the system
when LHM is applied. While other techniques demand a power
supply or a readout equipment with transmitting power. The
application of LHM slab can no doubt simplify the operating
system by omitting the energy supply.
Another merit of the LHM slab is that there is no frequency
splitting to concern when utilized in LC sensors. Fig. 7(b)
shows that the resonant frequency of LC sensor does not
change after the LHM slab is inserted. This is the basic
reason that the sensitivity can be remained the same. However,
other kinds of repeaters [11], [12] have to deal with the
frequency splitting problem by setting the critical distance
between the repeater and the sensor. The intrinsic nature of
the frequency splitting is the mutual coupling between the
DONG et al.: APPLYING METAMATERIAL-BASED REPEATER IN LC PASSIVE WIRELESS SENSORS TO ENHANCE READOUT
repeater and the sensor coil. This is avoided in the LHM
system because the enhancement of LHM is realized by its
negative permeability not the mutual coupling with the LC
sensor. Hence, the position of LHM slab has an amount of
flexibility.
The readout distance talked about in this paper indicates
the distance between the readout coil and the LC sensor,
which is widely used in researches that study a repeater/relay.
In addition to this readout distance, the separation between
LHM slab and the LC sensor is another focus of attention,
because it has the practical significance when the LC sensor
is inserted in some sealed environments. In this situation,
the distance between the repeater and the sensor is more
essential when the repeater is stamped onto the coverage. From
Fig. 7(a), it seems that the distance between the LHM and the
LC sensor is about half of the total readout distance. Actually,
the position of the LHM does not have be the middle point, and
the accessible range of the location is varied from the 1/3 to
2/3 of the whole readout distance. For example, the whole
readout distance is 12.5 mm in Fig. 7(a), then the distance
between the sensor and the LHM is varied around from
4.2 mm to 8.3 mm. In this range, the enhanced performance
is maintained. This extreme distance (8.3 mm in this paper)
helps extend the separation to some extent.
Adding more unit cells in the LHM slab is conducive to
the further enhancement since it will cover a larger space.
But a large LHM slab is not compatible in the LC sensor
system since the sensor size has been decreased. Hence it is
unadvisable to enlarge the whole size of LHM slab at random.
For an LHM slab with the outer diameter fixed, the enhancing
performance depends on the fraction volume. The fraction
volume of the cell occupied by the interior two-layer inductor
can be described as
r2
F= , (5)
(r + s)2
where r is the diameter of the inductor, and r is the separation
between adjacent inductors. The effective permeability and the
magnetic plasma frequency ωmp can be expressed as [14]
Fω2
μe f f = 1 − (6)
ω2 − ω02 + i γ ω
ω0
ωmp = √ , (7)
1− F
where ω0 is the original resonant frequency of the double-layer
inductor and γ is the damping factor. The magnetic plasma
frequency is a point where the effective permeability μe f f ends
in a non-negative value, which determines the negative band.
If the fraction volume F can be maintained unchanged when
adding more unit cells in the LHM slab, then the effective
permeability μe f f can keep the same by using a larger external
capacitor to adjust the original resonant frequency (since the
inductance is decreased). It is worth to mention that a large
F can cause a big absolute value of μe f f and a broad band
of negative part. Hence, when scaling down the unit cells,
the fraction volume should be maintained as large as possible.
It is workable to downsize the unit cell, then a larger
capacitance is needed to adjust the working frequency since
1759
the inductance is reduced. However, the capacitance has an
upper limit (the capacitance is so much larger than the induc-
tance that the whole element appears capacitive, then the LC
tank cannot work as a resonance), which means the working
frequency is unable to be lowered down immoderately by just
increasing the capacitance. This means the size of unit cell
cannot be diminished with ease. Hence, the design of the LHM
slab should be appropriate not only in the aspect of size, but
also in the aspect of working frequency.
From the experiments results in Fig. 7, it can be deduced
that the point where Re(μe f f ) = −1 is critical in this design
when the LHM is used in the LC sensor system. When both
permittivity ε = −1 and permeability μ = −1 are satisfied,
then the fraction index of a medium can be expressed as [16]
√
n = εμ = −1, (8)
where a negative square root should be chosen when both ε
and μ are negative. The medium is a perfect match to free
space and the interfaces show no reflection. The medium can
refocus and cancel the decay of evanescent waves (both far
field and near field). The evanescent waves emerge from the far
side of the medium enhanced in amplitude by the transmission
process. Hence, an LHM slab giving μ = −1 at an appropriate
frequency can focus sources of magnetic fields into sharp
images.
The result of the experiments has an improvement differ-
ent from other points, though it is not very dramatic. It is
because at this point the medium is a perfect match to free
space and the interface shows no reflection. The metamaterial
with a larger absolute value of μe f f (such as Re(u e f f ) =
−160) can also achieve evanescent wave amplification. How-
ever, this causes higher dielectric loss and magnetic loss in
metamaterials.
The metamaterial slab is used as a separated element in the
system. The best position is along the axis of the sensor and
the reader to achieve the best performance. Hence, it will not
be integrated with the reader design. In practical applications,
this slab is used to enhance the readout without any wired-
connections. For example, when this approach is applied to the
LC pressure sensor, the LHM slab can be integrated with the
glasses worn by the patient when a readout device interrogates
the LC sensor implanted in eyes for intraocular pressure.
In addition, in the paint spray booth of some factories, wired-
connections and power supply (which are the components of
the readout device) are not allowed to appear to avoid electric
sparks. In this situation, a wireless passive repeater is essential
to extend the readout distance.
In conclusion, a left-handed metamaterial is utilized to
enhance the readout of the LC passive wireless sensor. The
working frequency of the left-handed metamaterial is designed
to be adjustable to adapt to the frequency spectrum of LC
sensors by connecting a discrete capacitor. An LC humidity
sensor is measured both with and without the LHM slab. The
interrogating distance is extended over 1.8 times when the
signal strength is kept the same with the same sensitivity.
The measurement results indicate that the enhancement per-
formance becomes better when the real relative permeability
is around −1.
1760
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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 18, NO. 4, FEBRUARY 15, 2018
Lei Dong (S’12–M’17) was born in China in 1989.
She received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electri-
cal engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing,
China, in 2012 and 2017, respectively. She joined the
Faculty of the Department of Electronic Engineer-
ing, Southeast University, as an Assistant Professor.
Her research interests include MEMS sensors and
inductors, wireless passive micro-sensor, and induc-
tive telemetry technique.
Li-Feng Wang (M’13) was born in China in 1981.
He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees
in electrical engineering from Southeast University,
Nanjing, China, in 2003, 2006, and 2013, respec-
tively. From 2006 to 2008, he was with the Nanjing
Electronic Device Institute, where he was focused
on silicon micromechanical devices.
He joined the Faculty of the Department of
Electronic Engineering, Southeast University, as an
Assistant Professor. His current research interests
include the design, fabrication and reliability of
wireless micro-sensors, and micromachined RF/MW switches.
Qing-An Huang (S’89–M’91–SM’95–F’16)
received the B.S. degree from the Hefei University
of Technology, Hefei, China, in 1983, the M.S.
degree from Xidian University, Xi’an, China,
in 1987, and the Ph.D. degree from Southeast
University, Nanjing, China, in 1991, all in
electronics engineering. His research interests
include micromachined GaAs piezoelectric sensors.
He joined the Department of Electronic
Engineering, Southeast University, where he
became a Full Professor in 1996, and was appointed
as the Chair Professor of the Chang-Jiang Scholar by the Ministry of
Education in 2004. He is currently the Founding Director of the Key
Laboratory of MEMS with Southeast University. He has authored a
book entitled Silicon Micromachining Technology (Science Press, 1996),
authored or co-authored four international book chapters, over 200 peer-
reviewed international journals/conference papers and holds 80 Chinese
patents.
Dr. Huang was a recipient of the National Outstanding Youth Science
Foundation Award of China in 2003. He was the Conference Co-Chair of
the SPIE Microfabrication and Micromachining Process Technology and
Devices (Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 4601, 2001), the TPC Co-Chair of the
Sixth Asia-Pacific Conference of Transducers and Micro/Nano Technologies
(APCOT), Nanjing, 2012, a TPC Member of Transducers from 2009 to
2015, and the IEEE Sensors Conference from 2002 to 2014. He served
as the Steering Committee Chair of APCOT from 2012 to 2014. He had
been the Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese Journal of Sensors and Actuators,
since 2005 and is currently an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of
Micromechanics and Microengineering.