Objective
- Design, fabrication, and testing of the application circuit with the packaged ASIC Testing with different soils
- Integration and test of custom IC-based soil moisture sensor
- Testing in the greenhouse or open field and planning the way forward for mass production in the SCL fab in India
Project Description
The importance of affordable soil moisture sensor systems is a well-known fact not only for the agriculture sector in India but also worldwide. However, in India, most of the components of such sensor systems including electronic ICs are imported, particularly when it reaches the electronic ICs (integrated circuits). For a sustainable and cost-reduced soil moisture sensor-system for large scale agriculture fields and greenhouses, the design of an ASIC IP-based (application specific integrated circuit with intellectual property) is necessary.
Project Details
Principal Investigator: Prof. Maryam Shojaei Baghini
Cause Area/ Theme: Agriculture and Rural Development
Budget: INR 10 Lakhs
Technology Readiness Level: 4
Project Duration: 1 Year
UN SDG No: 9
Expected Impact
The team has been working on developing indigenous soil moisture sensors. Earlier, a discrete design of soil moisture sensor was made that was successfully used in the field. To make sensors even more compact and reliable (with less drift with the addition of fertilizer), the team has come up with an ASIC-based soil moisture sensor. The team has also successfully designed and developed an indigenous ASIC for capacitive sensing. It will help reduce the effect of parasites
arising due to sensor aging and ionic conductivity of soil, providing a long-lasting sensor with minimum serviceability. The power consumption of the sensor is reduced in comparison to the commercial off-the-shelf IC-based sensors, and this, in turn, increases the lifetime of the battery-operated systems.