Wireless Sensor for Meat Freshness Assessment Based on Radio Frequency Communication.

Wireless communication technologies, particularly radio frequency (RF), have been widely explored for wearable electronics with secure and user-friendly information transmission. By exploiting the operational principle of chemically actuated resonant devices (CARDs) and the electrical response observed in chemiresistive materials, we propose a simple and hands-on alternative to design and manufacture RF tags that function as CARDs for wireless sensing of meat freshness. Specifically, the RF antennas were meticulously designed and fabricated by lithography onto a flexible substrate with conductive tape, and the RF signal was characterized in terms of amplitude and peak resonant frequency.

Recent Progress in Amine Gas Sensors for Food Quality Monitoring: Novel Architectures for Sensing Materials and Systems.

The increasing demand for food production has necessitated the development of sensitive and reliable methods of analysis, which allow for the optimization of storage and distribution while ensuring food safety. Methods to quantify and monitor volatile and biogenic amines are key to minimizing the waste of high-protein foods and to enable the safe consumption of fresh products. Novel materials and device designs have allowed the development of portable and reliable sensors that make use of different transduction methods for amine detection and food quality monitoring.

Wireless Tags with Hybrid Nanomaterials for Volatile Amine Detection.

Quality control in the production and processing of raw meat is currently one of the biggest concerns for food industry and would benefit from portable and wireless sensors capable of detecting the onset of spoilage. Raw meat is a natural source of biogenic and volatile amines as byproducts of decarboxylation reactions, and the levels of these compounds can be utilized as quality control parameters. We report herein a hybrid chemiresistor sensor based on inorganic nanofibers of SiO:ZnO (an -type material) and single-walled carbon nanotubes functionalized with 3,5-dinitrophenyls (a -type material) with dosimetric sensitivity ∼40 times higher for amines than for other volatile organic compounds, which also provides excellent selectivity.

The Effect of Anodization Parameters on the Aluminum Oxide Dielectric Layer of Thin-Film Transistors.

Aluminum-oxide (Al2O3) is a low cost, easily processable and high dielectric constant insulating material that is particularly appropriate for use as the dielectric layer of thin-film transistors (TFTs). Growth of aluminum-oxide layers from anodization of metallic aluminum films is greatly advantageous when compared to sophisticated processes such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) or deposition methods that demand relatively high temperatures (above 300 °C) such as aqueous combustion or spray-pyrolysis. However, the electrical properties of the transistors are highly dependent on the presence of defects and localized states at the semiconductor/dielectric interface, which are strongly affected by the manufacturing parameters of the anodized dielectric layer.

Optimization of the Anodization Processing for Aluminum Oxide Gate Dielectrics in ZnO Thin Film Transistors by Multivariate Analysis.

The present study reports a two-level multivariate analysis to optimize the production of anodized aluminum oxide (AlO) dielectric films for zinc oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs). Fourteen performance parameters were measured and analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the combined responses has been applied to identify how the AlO dielectric fabrication process influences the electrical properties of the TFTs. Using this approach, the levels for the manufacturing factors to achieve optimal overall device performance have been identified and ranked.