Abstract—The design, fabrication, verification and manufacturing considerations of a PCB-based fringing electric field soil moisture sensor are described here. The theory of the operation, important design considerations and the sensor element performance are demonstrated as well. The soil moisture sensor element is fabricated using the well-established and well-controlled PCB technology. The sensing mechanism is driven using single excitation frequency. The performance of the soil moisture sensor in the coco-peat soil mixture is investigated and presented. The experimental study validated that the soil moisture sensor is capable of measuring the water content in the coco peat soil mixture at various volumetric percentage. However, for other type of soils, the sensor needs to be calibrated. 
 

Index Terms—soil moisture sensor, volumetric water content, impedance and coco peat

Cite: Suraya Sulaiman, Mohsen Nabipoor, Nurulhaidah Daud, and Mohd Farizul Azman, "Estimation of Soil Volumetric Water Content (VWC) in Relation to the Fringing Electric Field Lateral Electrode Impedance," International Journal of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 430-434, October 2016. doi: 10.18178/ijeee.4.5.430-434