Ultraviolet (UV) sensors are a key
component in growing applications
such as water quality treatment and environmental monitoring, with
considerable interest in their miniaturization and enhanced operation.
This work presents a passive gold coplanar waveguide split ring resonator
integrated with anodic self-organized TiO2 nanotube (TNT)
membranes with a thickness of 20 μm to provide real-time UV
detection. The resonator operated as a one-port device to capture
the reflection coefficient (S
11) signal,
with a center frequency of 16 GHz and a notch amplitude of −88
dB. It was experimentally analyzed for its UV sensing capability in
the range of 36.5–463 μW/cm2. The high-frequency
resonator was improved through design choices including the addition
of a tapered input transmission line, wire bonding for practical device
design, and an interdigitated capacitive ring gap. The high frequency
also helped mitigate noise due to water vapor or environmental contaminants. S
11 amplitude variation was found through both
experiments and modeling to follow a linear trend with UV illumination
intensity. The resonator exhibited over 45 ± 2 dB shift in the
resonant amplitude under the highest UV illumination conditions, with
a sensitivity of 0.084 dB/μW cm–2 and the
potential to sense UV intensity as low as 2.7 μW/cm2. The presented device enabled a repeatable and accurate microwave
response under UV illumination with very high sensitivity, entirely
through the use of passive circuit elements.