{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,11]],"date-time":"2026-06-11T16:00:39Z","timestamp":1781193639441,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,9]],"date-time":"2020-07-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1594252800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (USDOT\/OST-R) through INSPIRE University Transportation Center at Missouri University of Science and Technology","award":["No. 69A3551747126"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No. 69A3551747126"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Strain and crack are critical indicators of structural safety. As a novel sensing device, a patch antenna sensor can be utilized to wirelessly estimate structural strain and surface crack growth through resonance frequency shift. The main challenges for the sensor are other effects such as temperature fluctuation that can generate unwanted resonance frequency shift and result in large noise in the measurement. Another challenge for existing designs of patch antenna sensor is the limited interrogation distance. In this research, thermally stable patch antenna sensors are investigated for more reliable measurement. Fabricated on a substrate material with a steady dielectric constant, a new passive (battery-free) patch antenna sensor is designed to improve reliability under temperature fluctuations. In addition, another newly designed dual-mode patch antenna sensor is proposed to achieve a longer interrogation distance. Extensive experiments are conducted to characterize the patch antenna sensor performance, including thermal stability, tensile strain sensing, and emulated crack sensing. The two new patch antenna sensors are demonstrated to be effective in wireless strain and crack measurements and have potential applications in structural health monitoring (SHM).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s20143835","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,9]],"date-time":"2020-07-09T10:45:19Z","timestamp":1594291519000},"page":"3835","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":32,"title":["Thermally Stable Wireless Patch Antenna Sensor for Strain and Crack Sensing"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4379-7972","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dan","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30301, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1031-9491","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30301, USA"},{"name":"School of Electrical and Computing Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30301, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"589","DOI":"10.1098\/rsta.2006.1925","article-title":"Structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure","volume":"365","author":"Brownjohn","year":"2007","journal-title":"Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A Math. Phys. Eng. Sci."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1007\/s13349-015-0108-9","article-title":"State-of-the-art in structural health monitoring of large and complex civil infrastructures","volume":"6","author":"Li","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Civ. Struct. Health Monit."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, J., Tian, G.Y., Marindra, A.M., Sunny, A.I., and Zhao, A.B. (2017). A review of passive RFID tag antenna-based sensors and systems for structural health monitoring applications. Sensors, 17.","DOI":"10.3390\/s17020265"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"879","DOI":"10.1177\/1045389X06075760","article-title":"Practical implementation of optical fiber sensors in civil structural health monitoring","volume":"18","author":"Ansari","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Intell. Mater. Syst. Struct."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"91","DOI":"10.1002\/stc.33","article-title":"Instrumentation and health monitoring of cable-supported bridges","volume":"11","author":"Wong","year":"2004","journal-title":"Struct. Control Health Monit."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"\u00c7elebi, M. (2002). Seismic Instrumentation of Buildings (with Emphasis on Federal Buildings)."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"John, A. (1998). A Modular, Wireless Damage Monitoring System for Structures, Blume Earthquake Eng. Ctr., Stanford University. Report No. 128."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Lynch, J.P., Law, K.H., Kiremidjian, A.S., Kenny, T.W., Carryer, E., and Partridge, A. (2001, January 12\u201314). The design of a wireless sensing unit for structural health monitoring. Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring, Stanford, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Wang, Y., Lynch, J.P., and Law, K.H. (2005, January 12\u201314). Validation of an integrated network system for real-time wireless monitoring of civil structures. Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring, Stanford, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kane, M., Zhu, D., Hirose, M., Dong, X., Winter, B., H\u00e4ckell, M., Lynch, J.P., Wang, Y., and Swartz, A. (2014, January 10\u201313). Development of an extensible dual-core wireless sensing node for cyber-physical systems. Proceedings of the Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2014, San Diego, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1117\/12.2045325"},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Dong, X., Chen, S., Zhu, D., Kane, M., Wang, Y., and Lynch, J.P. (2014, January 15\u201317). High-speed heterogeneous data acquisition using Martlet\u2014A next-generation wireless sensing device. Proceedings of the Sixth World Conference on Structural Control and Monitoring (6WCSCM), Barcelona, Spain."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Zhao, F., Guibas, L.J., and Guibas, L. (2004). Wireless Sensor Networks: An Information Processing Approach, Morgan Kaufmann."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17","DOI":"10.1007\/s13349-015-0111-1","article-title":"Recent advances in wireless smart sensors for multi-scale monitoring and control of civil infrastructure","volume":"6","author":"Spencer","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Civ. Struct. Health Monit."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"842","article-title":"Autonomous decentralized structural health monitoring using smart sensors","volume":"16","author":"Nagayama","year":"2009","journal-title":"Struct. Control Health Monit."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"91","DOI":"10.1177\/0583102406061499","article-title":"A summary review of wireless sensors and sensor networks for structural health monitoring","volume":"38","author":"Lynch","year":"2006","journal-title":"Shock Vib. Dig."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1403","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2017.2691551","article-title":"Structural health monitoring using wireless sensor networks: A comprehensive survey","volume":"19","author":"Noel","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, Z.N. (2015). Antenna sensors in passive wireless sensing systems. Handbook of Antenna Technologies, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-981-4560-75-7_91-1"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"015201","DOI":"10.1088\/0957-0233\/20\/1\/015201","article-title":"Exploiting a patch antenna for strain measurements","volume":"20","author":"Tata","year":"2009","journal-title":"Meas. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"035201","DOI":"10.1088\/0957-0233\/21\/3\/035201","article-title":"Wireless interrogation of passive antenna sensors","volume":"21","author":"Deshmukh","year":"2010","journal-title":"Meas. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5725","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2016.2567221","article-title":"Passive wireless frequency doubling antenna sensor for strain and crack sensing","volume":"16","author":"Cho","year":"2016","journal-title":"Sens. J. IEEE"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.1080\/19475411.2010.545450","article-title":"Passive wireless smart-skin sensor using RFID-based folded patch antennas","volume":"2","author":"Yi","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Smart Nano Mater."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.5539\/mas.v7n2p57","article-title":"A review of passive wireless sensors for structural health monitoring","volume":"7","author":"Deivasigamani","year":"2013","journal-title":"Mod. Appl. Sci."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"82","DOI":"10.1089\/soro.2018.0026","article-title":"Soft radio-frequency identification sensors: Wireless long-range strain sensors using radio-frequency identification","volume":"6","author":"Teng","year":"2019","journal-title":"Soft Robot."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"286","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2016.2631259","article-title":"An RFID-enabled wireless strain gauge sensor for static and dynamic structural monitoring","volume":"17","author":"DiGiampaolo","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yi, X., Vyas, R., Cho, C., Fang, C.-H., Cooper, J., Wang, Y., Leon, R.T., and Tentzeris, M.M. (2013, January 11\u201315). Thermal effects on a passive wireless antenna sensor for strain and crack sensing. Proceedings of the SPIE, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical and Aerospace Systems, San Diego, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1117\/12.914833"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Finkenzeller, K. (2003). RFID Handbook, John Wiley & Sons. [2nd ed.].","DOI":"10.1002\/0470868023"},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"NXP Semiconductors (2019). Product Data Sheet SL3ICS1003\/1013: UCODE G2iM and G2iM+, NXP Semiconductors."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/14\/3835\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T09:49:28Z","timestamp":1760176168000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/14\/3835"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,9]]},"references-count":27,"journal-issue":{"issue":"14","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7]]}},"alternative-id":["s20143835"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s20143835","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,9]]}}}