Electronic tongue system for remote multi-ion sensing using blind source separation and wireless sensor network

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents an electronic tongue system with blind source separation (BSS) and wireless sensor network (WSN) for remote multi-ion sensing applications. Electrochemical sensors, such as ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) and extended-gate field-effect transistor (EGFET), only provide the combined concentrations of all ions in aqueous solutions. Mixed hydrogen and sodium ions in chemical solutions are observed by means of H + ISFET and H + EGFET sensor array. The BSS extracts the concentration of individual ions using independent component analysis (ICA). The parameters of ISFET and EGFET sensors serve as a priori knowledge that helps solve the BSS problem. Using wireless transceivers, the ISFET/EGFET modules are realized as wireless sensor nodes. The integration of WSN technology into our electronic tongue system with BSS capability makes distant multi-ion measurement viable for environment and water quality monitoring. Keywords: Electronic tongue, ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET), extended-gate field-effect transistor (EGFET), wireless sensor network (WSN), blind source separation (BSS), independent component analysis (ICA)