Review of polymer-based sensors for agriculture-related applications

Advancements in micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) and nano-electro-mechanical system (NEMS) technologies are changing the way integrated systems interact with nature by providing a variety of physical and chemical sensing technologies. For emerging markets, cost of new technologies, aimed at applications such as environmental monitoring and agriculture, is an important factor for deployment. This article provides a review on low-cost polymers, used for sensing environmental parameters, such as humidity and temperature, as well as soil-related substances, such as pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Polymer-based MEMS and NEMS sensors take advantage of simple low-temperature spin-coating process for depositing various sensitive polymer layers on a variety of sensing devices. Review on material, specification and preparation method of the polymers along with their molecular structures is presented in this article. A brief review on the associated devices, such as ion-sensitive field effect transistor, with reported results is also presented.