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Humidity

Humidity is the presence of water vapor in air, which significantly impacts human comfort and various industrial processes. Accurate humidity measurement is essential in sectors like semiconductors, healthcare, agriculture, and food processing, employing sensors based on capacitive and resistive principles. Different humidity sensing mechanisms, including electronic hygrometers and psychrometric methods, are utilized to monitor moisture levels effectively.

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2 views

Humidity

Humidity is the presence of water vapor in air, which significantly impacts human comfort and various industrial processes. Accurate humidity measurement is essential in sectors like semiconductors, healthcare, agriculture, and food processing, employing sensors based on capacitive and resistive principles. Different humidity sensing mechanisms, including electronic hygrometers and psychrometric methods, are utilized to monitor moisture levels effectively.

Uploaded by

manikantha.gopalasetty
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Humidity is the presence of water in air.

The amount of water vapor in air can affect


human comfort as well as many manufacturing processes in industries. The presence of
water vapor also influences various physical, chemical, and biological
processes. Humidity measurement in industries is critical because it may affect the
business cost of the product and the health and safety of the personnel. Hence, humidity
sensing is very important, especially in the control systems for industrial processes and
human comfort.

Controlling or monitoring humidity is of paramount importance in many industrial & domestic applications.
or moisture levels needs to be properly controlled &
In semiconductor industry, humidity
monitored during wafer processing. In medical applications, humidity control is required
for respiratory equipments, sterilizers, incubators, pharmaceutical processing, and
biological products. Humidity control is also necessary in chemical gas purification,
dryers, ovens, film desiccation, paper and textile production, and food processing. In
agriculture, measurement of humidity is important for plantation protection (dew
prevention), soil moisture monitoring, etc. For domestic applications, humidity control is
required for living environment in buildings, cooking control for microwave ovens, etc.
In all such applications and many others, humidity sensors are employed to provide an
indication of the moisture levels in the environment.

RELEVANT MOISTURE TERMS


To mention moisture levels, variety of terminologies are used. The study of water vapour concentration in
air as a function of temperature and pressure falls under the area of psychometrics. Psychometrics deals
with the thermodynamic properties of moist gases while the term “humidity’ simply refers to the presence
of water vapour in air or other carrier gas.

Humidity measurement determines the amount of water vapor present in a gas that can be a mixture,
such as air, or a pure gas, such as nitrogen or argon. Various terms used to indicate moisture levels
Most commonly used units for humidity measurement are Relative Humidity (RH), Dew/Frost point (D/F
PT) and Parts Per Million (PPM). RH is a function of temperature, and thus it is a relative measurement.
Dew/Frost point is a function of the pressure of the gas but is independent of temperature and is therefore
defined as absolute humidity measurement. PPM is also an absolute measurement.

Dew points and frost points are often used when the dryness of the gas is important. Dew point is also
used as an indicator of water vapor in high temperature processes, such as industrial drying.
Mixing ratios, volume percent, and specific humidity are usually used when water vapor is either an
impurity or a defined component of a process gas mixture used in manufacturing.

Sensing Principle

Humidity measurement can be done using dry and wet bulb hygrometers, dew point hygrometers, and

electronic hygrometers. There has been a surge in the demand of electronic hygrometers, often called

humidity sensors.

Electronic type hygrometers or humidity sensors can be broadly divided into two categories: one employs

capacitive sensing principle, while other use resistive effects

Sensors based on capacitive effect:

Humidity sensors relying on this principle consists of a hygroscopic dielectric material sandwiched

between a pair of electrodes forming a small capacitor. Most capacitive sensors use a plastic or polymer

as the dielectric material, with a typical dielectric constant ranging from 2 to 15. In absence of moisture,

the dielectric constant of the hygroscopic dielectric material and the sensor geometry determine the value

of capacitance.

At normal room temperature, the dielectric constant of water vapor has a value of about 80, a value much

larger than the constant of the sensor dielectric material. Therefore, absorption of water vapor by the

sensor results in an increase in sensor capacitance.


At equilibrium conditions, the amount of moisture present in a hygroscopic material
depends on both the ambient temperature and the ambient water vapor pressure. This
is true also for the hygroscopic dielectric material used on the sensor.

By definition, relative humidity is a function of both the ambient temperature and water vapor pressure.

Therefore there is a relationship between relative humidity, the amount of moisture present in the sensor,

and sensor capacitance. This relationship governs the operation of a capacitive humidity instrument.

Basic structure of capacitive type humidity sensor is shown below:

On Alumina substrate, lower electrode is formed using gold, platinum or other material. A polymer layer

such as PVA is deposited on the electrode. This layers senses humidity. On top of this polymer film, gold

layer is deposited which acts as top electrode. The top electrode also allows water vapour to pass

through it, into the sensing layer . The vapors enter or leave the hygroscopic sensing layer until the

vapour content is in equilibrium with the ambient air or gas.Thus capacitive type sensor is basically a

capacitor with humidity sensitive polymer film as the dielectric.

Sensors based on Resistive effect:

Resistive type humidity sensors pick up changes in the resistance value of the sensor element in

response to the change in the humidity. Basic structure of resistive type humidity sensor from TDK is

shown below
Thick film conductor of precious metals like gold, ruthenium oxide is printed and calcinated in the shape of

the comb to form an electrode. Then a polymeric film is applied on the electrode; the film acts as a

humidity sensing film due to the existence of movable ions. Change in impedance occurs due to the

change in the number of movable ions.


Pros and Cons:

Capactive type sensors are very linear and hence can measure RH from 0% to 100%, but require

complex circuit and also need regular calibration. Resistive type sensors find difficulty in measuring low

values (below 5%RH) , the change is impedance is too high and hence it is difficult to control the

dynamics, temperature effects the properties significantly. However, advances in electronics can mitigate

the problems of temperature effects and high impedance change.

Capacitive RH sensors dominate both atmospheric and process measurements and are the only types of

full-range RH measuring devices capable of operating accurately down to 0% RH. Because of their low

temperature effect, they are often used over wide temperature ranges without active temperature

compensation. Thermoset polymer-based capacitive sensors, as opposed to thermoplastic-based

capacitive sensors, allow higher operating temperatures and provide better resistivity against chemical

liquids and vapors such as isopropyl, benzene, toluene, formaldehydes, oils, common cleaning agents,

etc.

Other Humidity Sensing Mechanisms:


1. Coulometric
An electrolyte is formed by absorption of water and the current level obtained is
proportional to the moisture content.
2. Gravimetric
A volume of moist air is exposed to a drying agent and subsequently weighed. The
weight corresponds to the moisture.
3. Microwave/Infrared:
Attenuation of the transmitted signal varies as the amount of water content increases is
an indication of the moisture content in the medium.
4. Dry-and Wet bulb temperature
Psychrometer gives relative humidity estimates based on Dry-and Wet bulb temperature
measurement
5. Dew Point
Dew Point hygrometers measure dew-point temperature by detecting dew formation on a cooler base.

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