Water’s salinity plays an important role in the environment. It can be determined by measuring conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD). The corresponding sensor systems are commonly large and cumbersome. Here, a 7.5?×?3.5?mm chip, containing microstructured CTD sensor elements, has been developed. On this, 1.5?mm2 gold finger electrodes are used to measure the impedance, and thereby the conductivity of water, in the MHz frequency range. Operation at these frequencies resulted in higher sensitivities than those at sub-MHz frequencies. Up to 14?k? per parts per thousand salt concentration was obtained repeatedly for freshwater concentrations. This was three orders of magnitude higher than that obtained for concentrations in and above the brackish range. A platinum electrode is used to determine a set ambient temperature with an accuracy of 0.005°C. Membranes with Nichrome strain gauges responded to a pressure change of 1 bar with a change in resistance of up to 0.21? . A linear fit to data over 7 bars gave a sensitivity of 0.1185? /bar with an of 0.9964. This indicates that the described device can be used in size-limited applications, like miniaturized submersibles, or as a bio-logger on marine animals. 1. Introduction In the field of oceanography, salinity is an important property of water. Simply put, it is defined as the total amount of dissolved salts in one kilogram of water. The degree of salinity can be expressed in parts per thousands, where the oceans have an average salinity close to 35‰, and freshwater has salinity below 0.5‰. Salinity is constantly changing through events like evaporation, precipitation, and ice formation and melting. It is an essential ecological and environmental factor that has a great influence on which kind of life can prevail and which plants can grow. It affects water usage all over the world, determining which waters are potable and which can be used for irrigation. It is therefore important to be able to measure and monitor the salt content of water. Furthermore, the salinity of water plays a critical role in the climate of the planet, where the density, which is usually not measured directly but calculated from salinity, temperature, and pressure measurements, is the driving force behind the world’s ocean circulation through convection, the rising and sinking of water [1]. The salinity and temperature of water also affect other phenomena, such as the solubility of oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2), the vaporization and ionization of water, and the dissolution of solid calcium carbonate (CaCO3) [2]. As CO2 from
References
[1]
S. Rahmstorf, “Ocean circulation and climate during the past 120,000 years,” Nature, vol. 419, no. 6903, pp. 207–214, 2002.
[2]
W. Stumm and J. J. Morgan, Aquatic Chemistry—An Introduction Emphasizing Chemical Equilibria in Natural Waters, Wiley Interscience, 1981.
[3]
K. Caldeira and M. E. Wickett, “Anthropogenic carbon and ocean pH,” Nature, vol. 425, no. 6956, p. 365, 2003.
[4]
C. Sheppard, S. Davy, and G. Pilling, The Biology of Coral Reefs, Oxford Scholarship Online, 2009.
[5]
O. Hoegh-Guldberg, P. J. Mumby, A. J. Hooten et al., “Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification,” Science, vol. 318, no. 5857, pp. 1737–1742, 2007.
[6]
J. A. Kleypas, R. W. Buddemeier, D. Archer, J.-P. Gattuso, C. Langdon, and B. N. Opdyke, “Geochemical consequences of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide on coral reefs,” Science, vol. 284, no. 5411, pp. 118–120, 1999.
[7]
U. Riebesell, I. Zondervan, B. Rost, P. D. Tortell, R. E. Zeebe, and F. M. M. Morel, “Reduced calcification of marine plankton in response to increased atmospheric CO2,” Nature, vol. 407, no. 6802, pp. 364–366, 2000.
[8]
B. A. Seibel and P. J. Walsh, “Carbon cycle: potential impacts of CO2 injection on deep-sea biota,” Science, vol. 294, no. 5541, pp. 319–320, 2001.
[9]
E. L. Lewis, “The practical salinity scale 1978 and its antecedents,” IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. OE-5, no. 1, pp. 3–8, 1980.
[10]
N. P. Fofonoff and R. C. Millard, “Algorithms for computation of fundamental properties of seawater,” UNESCO Technical Papers in Marine Science 44, 1983.
[11]
H. Minato, Y. Kakui, A. Nishimoto, and M. Nanjo, “Remote refractive index difference meter for salinity sensor,” IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 608–612, 1989.
[12]
L. S. Clescerl, A. E. Gyreenberg, and A. D. Eaton, Eds., Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, part 2520, American Public Health Assocation, American Water Works Association & Water Environment Federation, 220th edition.
[13]
D. M. Le Vine, G. S. E. Lagerloef, F. Pellerano, and F. R. Colomb, “The Aquarius/SAC-D mission and status of the Aquarius instrument,” in Proceedings of the 10th Specialist Meeting of Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of the Environment (MICRORAD '08), March 2008.
[14]
Y. H. Kerr, P. Waldteufel, J.-P. Wigneron, J.-M. Martinuzzi, J. Font, and M. Berger, “Soil moisture retrieval from space: The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission,” IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 39, no. 8, pp. 1729–1735, 2001.
[15]
R. H. Stewart, Introduction to Physical Oceanography, Texas A&M University, 2008.
[16]
S. C. Riser, L. Ren, and A. Wong, “Salinity in Argo,” Oceanography, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 56–67, 2008.
[17]
J. Jonsson, J. Sundqvist, H. Nguyen et al., “Miniaturized submersible for exploration of small aqueous environments,” in Proceedings of the MTS/IEEE Kona Conference (OCEANS'11), September 2011.
[18]
J. Jonsson, S. Ogden, L. Johansson, K. Hjort, and G. Thornell, “Acoustically enriching, large-depth aquatic sampler,” Lab on a Chip, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 1619–1628, 2012.
[19]
M. Biuw, L. Boehme, C. Guinet et al., “Variations in behavior and condition of a Southern Ocean top predator in relation to in situ oceanographic conditions,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 104, no. 34, pp. 13705–13710, 2007.
[20]
S. Neuenfeldt, H.-H. Hinrichsen, A. Nielsen, and K. H. Andersen, “Reconstructing migrations of individual cod (Gadus morhua L.) in the Baltic Sea by using electronic data storage tags,” Fisheries Oceanography, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 526–535, 2007.
[21]
A. Hyldg?rd, D. Mortensen, K. Birkelund, O. Hansen, and E. V. Thomsen, “Autonomous multi-sensor micro-system for measurement of ocean water salinity,” Sensors and Actuators A, vol. 147, no. 2, pp. 474–484, 2008.
[22]
K. Birkelund, A. Hyldg?rd, D. Mortensen, and E. V. Thomsen, “Miniaturized multi-sensor for aquatic studies,” Measurement Science and Technology, vol. 22, no. 5, Article ID 055802, 2011.
[23]
H. A. Broadbent, S. Z. Ivanov, and D. P. Fries, “A miniature, low cost CTD system for coastal salinity measurements,” Measurement Science and Technology, vol. 18, no. 11, pp. 3295–3302, 2007.
[24]
H. A. Broadbent, T. P. Ketterl, and C. S. Reid, “A miniature rigid/flex salinity measurement device fabricated using printed circuit processing techniques,” Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, vol. 20, no. 8, Article ID 085008, 2010.
[25]
X. Huang, R. W. Pascal, K. Chamberlain, C. J. Banks, M. Mowlem, and H. Morgan, “A miniature, high precision conductivity and temperature sensor system for ocean monitoring,” IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 11, no. 12, pp. 3246–3252, 2011.
[26]
J. Jonsson, J. Sundqvist, H. Nguyen et al., “Instrumentation and vehicle platform of a miniaturized submersible for exploration of terrestrial and extraterrestrial aqueous environments,” Acta Astronautica, vol. 79, pp. 203–211, 2012.
[27]
M. J. Siegert, J. C. Ellis-Evans, M. Tranter et al., “Physical, chemical and biological processes in Lake Vostok and other Antarctic subglacial lakes,” Nature, vol. 414, no. 6864, pp. 603–609, 2001.
[28]
L. M. Cowardin, Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States, Diane, Darby, Pa, USA, 1979.
[29]
U. T. Hammer, Saline Lake Ecosystems of the World, chapter 2, Dr. W. Junk, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1986.
[30]
R. S. Ayers and D. W. Westcot, Water Quality for Agriculture, Chapter 1, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, 1985.
[31]
I. Steinhorn, “In situ salt precipitation at the Dead Sea,” Limnology & Oceanography, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 580–583, 1983.
[32]
W. Dittmar, Reports on Researches Into the Composition of Ocean Water, Collected by HMS Challenger, vol. 1 of Physics and Chemistry, Challenger Reports, 1884.
[33]
D. E. Carritt and J. H. Carpenter, “The composition of seawater and the salinity-chlorinity-density problems,” in Conference on Physical and Chemical Properties of Sea Water, pp. 67–86, National Academies, Easton, Md, USA, 19581959.
[34]
UNESCO, “The International System of Units (SI) in Oceanography,” Technical Papers in Marine Science, vol. 45, p. 124, 1985.
[35]
R. G. Perkin and E. L. Lewis, “The Practical Salinity Scale 1978: fitting the data,” IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 9–16, 1980.
[36]
H. Preston-Thomas, “International temperature scale of 1990 (ITS-90),” Metrologia, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 3–10, 1990.
[37]
F. J. Millero, R. Feistel, D. G. Wright, and T. J. McDougall, “The composition of Standard Seawater and the definition of the Reference-Composition Salinity Scale,” Deep Sea Research I, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 50–72, 2008.
[38]
W. Olthuis, W. Streekstra, and P. Bergveld, “Theoretical and experimental determination of cell constants of planar-interdigitated electrolyte conductivity sensors,” Sensors and Actuators B, vol. 24, no. 1–3, pp. 252–256, 1995.
[39]
T. A. Gregory, Micromachined Transducers Sourcebook, McGraw-Hill, 1998.
[40]
L. Klintberg, M. Karlsson, L. Stenmark, J.-?. Schweitz, and G. Thornell, “A large stroke, high force paraffin phase transition actuator,” Sensors and Actuators A, vol. 96, no. 2-3, pp. 189–195, 2002.
[41]
H. Kratz, M. Karlsson, A. Eriksson, J. K?hler, L. Stenmark, and G. Thornell, “Design and modeling of a thermally regulated communications module for nanospacecraft,” Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 1377–1386, 2006.
[42]
P. Atkin and J. Paula, Physical Chemistry, Oxford University Press, 2010.
[43]
A. Hyldg?rd, K. Birkelund, J. Janting, and E. V. Thomsen, “Direct media exposure of MEMS multi-sensor systems using a potted-tube packaging concept,” Sensors and Actuators A, vol. 142, no. 1, pp. 398–404, 2008.