New Sensor Tag for Accurate Water Level Detection and More
At a glance:
- IC chip for water level, weight, moisture and gas detection
- Form factor: as a label tag, an on-metal tag, a smartcard or an on-body tag
- Read range of up to 4.5 meters
- Accuracy of +/- 5 percent
Capacitance sensors are the foundation of remote sensing. Applications for wireless sensors are already numerous, including deployment in industrial automation, warehouse management, traffic monitoring, medical device monitoring, airspace control, and robotics. A powerful capacitance sensor tag such as the one introduced by E-Garde, performs auto-ID functions and at the same time transmits valuable condition data.
Six Years in the Making
E-Garde’s Capacitance Sensor Tag uses a special IC chip to detect capacitance. The chip has been developed by ROHM Semiconductor over a period of six years, and E-Garde cooperated the development. The finished tag consists of PCB (Rigid or Flexible) or standard label tag (PET, aluminum and ACP). It can be attached to cables or applied to other objects and senses changes in capacitance in liquids, air and other objects.
Typical applications for the Capacitance Sensor Tag include water level, weight, moisture and gas detection. The form factor of the tag is flexible. It can be manufactured as a label tag, an on-metal tag, a smartcard or an on-body tag.
Water Level Detection
One of the main use cases E-Garde had in mind when developing this tag was usage as a water level detection tag. By attaching the detection electrode of this tag to a bottle, it is possible to detect the capacitance that changes moment by moment depending on the water level. This makes it highly suitable for applications in pharmaceuticals and healthcare. In warehouses, the tag can be used for detecting drips. The shape of the detection electrode can be adjusted according to fit the use case and to achieve the most accurate detection.
Battery-Free Communication in UHF Band
The is a battery-less tag. Data retention time is 10 years. The reading range of the UHF tag is up to 4.5 meters. Precision and accuracy of this tag are extremely good. It detects with an accuracy of +/- 5 percent and captures 4.000 points simultaneously. The main target markets at the moment are warehouse logistics and storage management.
