Abstract

The rapid escalation of water pollution due to industrial effluents, agricultural runoff, and climate-induced changes has intensified the need for continuous and precise environmental monitoring. Conventional laboratory-based water quality assessment methods, though accurate, are often time-consuming, costly, and unsuitable for real-time applications. The convergence of optical sensing and microelectronic systems offers a transformative pathway for developing intelligent, miniaturized, and energy-efficient platforms capable of continuous water quality surveillance. Existing optical and electrochemical sensors often suffer from limited sensitivity, signal drift, and slow response under dynamic climatic and environmental conditions. Furthermore, the combination challenges between optical components and microelectronic circuits restrict their deployment in distributed or IoT-based monitoring frameworks. Therefore, there is a critical need to design hybrid sensor architectures that ensure real-time pollutant detection, long-term stability, and adaptive calibration under varying environmental stimuli. This study presents an integrated optical–microelectronic sensor platform that combines photonic detection with CMOS-compatible circuitry for enhanced sensitivity and miniaturization. The platform utilizes wavelength-selective photodiodes and fluorescence-based optical fibers embedded within a microelectronic control unit for multi-parameter sensing of contaminants such as nitrates, heavy metals, and organic dyes. The embedded signal processing module employs adaptive filtering and temperature-compensation algorithms to maintain accuracy under fluctuating climatic conditions. Experimental validation shown that the proposed hybrid sensor achieved a detection limit up to 0.2 ppm for heavy metals and 95% correlation with laboratory spectroscopic analyses. The system exhibited fast response times (<3 s) and stable performance across temperature variations of ±10 °C.

Authors

D. Angeline Ranjithamani, R.S. Rajesh
Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, India

Keywords

Optical Sensors, Microelectronics, Real-Time Monitoring, Water Pollution, Climate-Induced Contaminants