{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:40:16Z","timestamp":1760244016790,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":12,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2010,12,6]],"date-time":"2010-12-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1291593600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In order to improve rapid on-line moisture sensing of seedcotton in cotton gins, a means by which to establish a reliable low-cost wide-band electronic calibration is critically needed. This calibration is needed to center the circuit due to changes in the internal signal delays and attenuation drift caused by temperature changes in the various system components and circuit elements. This research examines a hardware technique for use in conjunction with microwave reflective sensing probes having an extended bandwidth from 500 MHz through 2.5 GHz. This new technique was validated experimentally against known electrical propagation delay standards. Results of the measured propagation delay with this type of automatic electronic calibration method was found to agree with results using a vector network analyzer with a traditional S11 single port error correction calibration methodology to within 4% of the measurement, 95% confidence, with a standard error of +\/\u221218.6 ps for the delay measurements. At this level of performance, the proposed low-cost technique exhibits superior performance, over the typical geosciences time-domain reflectometer \u201cTDR\u201d, instruments in common use in soil moisture testing and is suitable for use in cotton gin moisture sensing.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s101211088","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2010,12,6]],"date-time":"2010-12-06T12:52:49Z","timestamp":1291639969000},"page":"11088-11099","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Low-Cost Electronic Microwave Calibration for Rapid On-Line Moisture Sensing of Seedcotton"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6151-8266","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mathew G.","family":"Pelletier","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Services, Lubbock, TX 79403, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Joseph A.","family":"Viera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sensors Group Microsemi Corporation Lowell, MA 01851, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2010,12,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7241","DOI":"10.3390\/s8117241","article-title":"Microwave imaging of cotton bales","volume":"8","author":"Pelletier","year":"2008","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"170","article-title":"Multi-path interference investigation for cotton bale microwave moisture sensing","volume":"8","author":"Pelletier","year":"2004","journal-title":"J Cotton Sci"},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"135","article-title":"Multi-path interference mitigation for cotton bale microwave moisture sensing","volume":"9","author":"Pelletier","year":"2005","journal-title":"J Cotton Sci"},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Pelletier, MG Microwave Bale Moisture Sensing: Field Trial Continued. New Orleans, LA, USA."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Pelletier, MG (Multi-path Resistant Microwave Moisture Sensor, 2006). Multi-path Resistant Microwave Moisture Sensor, Patent 7078913."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Pozar, DM (1998). Microwave Engineering, Wiley. [2nd ed]."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Collin, RE (1966). Foundations of Microwave Engineering, McGraw-Hill."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2211","DOI":"10.1109\/22.106567","article-title":"16-term error model and calibration procedure for on-wafer network analysis measurements","volume":"39","author":"Butler","year":"1991","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Microwave Theory Tech"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"987","DOI":"10.1109\/TMTT.1979.1129778","article-title":"Thru-reflect-line: An improved technique for calibrating the dual six-port automatic network analyzer","volume":"27\u201312","author":"Engen","year":"1979","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Microwave Theory"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"505","DOI":"10.1109\/75.173410","article-title":"Two-port network analyzer calibration using an unknown \u201cthru\u201d","volume":"2","author":"Ferrero","year":"1992","journal-title":"IEEE Microw Guided Wave Lett"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1105","DOI":"10.1109\/19.676721","article-title":"15-term self-calibration methods for the error-correction of on-wafer measurements","volume":"46","author":"Heuermann","year":"1997","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Instrum Measur"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"407","DOI":"10.1109\/TMTT.1983.1131512","article-title":"Techniques for correcting scattering parameter data of an imperfectly terminated multiport when measured with a two-port network analyzer","volume":"31","author":"Rautio","year":"1983","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Microwave Theory Tech"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/10\/12\/11088\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T22:04:01Z","timestamp":1760220241000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/10\/12\/11088"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2010,12,6]]},"references-count":12,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2010,12]]}},"alternative-id":["s101211088"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s101211088","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1424-8220"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2010,12,6]]}}}