Currently, there is no equipment to measure the real-time fit of EHMR or N-95masks which are used in harsh environments. Improper fit of these EHMRs or N-95 masks exposes the personnel to hazardous environments. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors have been around for few decades and are being used in various applications. In this work, real-time PM2.5 detection using passive wireless SAW sensors is presented. The design of meander antenna at 433MHz for wireless interrogation of SAW sensor using HFSS and ADS is also presented in this thesis. This works also includes the design of YZ-lithium niobate SAW sensor including COMSOL simulation.

A passive wireless surface acoustic wave sensor of a delay-line type is composed of an antenna, a transducer that converts the EM signal into a surface acoustic wave, and a set of acoustic reflectors that reflect the incoming signal back out through the antenna. A cavity forms between the transducer and the reflectors, trapping energy and causing multiple unwanted echoes. The work in this dissertation aims to reduce the unwanted echoes so that only the main transit signal is left--the signal of interest with sensor information. The contributions of this dissertation include reflective delay-line device response in the form of an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter. This may be used in the future to subtract out unwanted echoes via post-processing. However, this dissertation will use a physical approach to echo suppression by using a unidirectional transducer. Thus a unidirectional transducer is used and also optimized for 3rd harmonic operation. Both the directionality and the coupling of the 3rd harmonic optimized SPUDT are improved over a standard electrode width controlled (EWC) SPUDT. New type of reflectors for the reflective delay-line device are also presented. These use BPSK type coding, similar to that of the Walsh-Hadamard codes. Two types are presented, variable reflectivity and variable chip-lengths. The COM model is used to simulate devices and compare the predicted echo suppression level to that of fabricated devices. Finally, a device is mounted on a tunable antenna and the echo is suppressed on a wireless operating device.