Engineers Create Floating, Solar-Powered Water Quality Sensors with "Multi-Dimensional ICs"

A team of engineers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have created compact solar-powered water quality sensors, targeting aquaculture farmers, using a technique they have dubbed multi-dimensional integrated circuits (MD-ICs).

The team, led by electrical engineer Muhammad Hussain, were looking to create a compact, low-power, multi-function sensor that would be waterproof and simple to operate, but kept running into a problem. “Integrating different functions on to one computer chip is complex and expensive,” lead author Nazek El-Atab explains, before revealing the secret to simplifying things: "We have combined several chips into a cube so that each face serves a different purpose.

"We wanted to create something small and light weight," El-Atab continues. "The farmer can simply throw the device into the water, and it rotates itself into the right position. They could be sent down oil pipes to collect data on oil quality."

The resulting cube-shaped creation floats such that sensors — taking readings on water temperature, acidity, salinity, and ammonia levels — are submerged and a solar panel to power it remains on top, even when being nudged by the fish in the aquaculture farm. With six faces to the cube the team were also able to add extra sensors for air pollution levels, as well as the antenna required to transmit the resulting readings to a nearby Bluetooth receiver.

"The concept of MD-ICs [multi-dimensional integrated circuits] is unique, as it opens up opportunities for single devices with internet of things applications,” claims Hussein of the project. "And water is always an intriguing medium for electronics."

The team's work has been published under open-access in the journal Small.