The disclosure relates to a sensor for a quantity of a medium, such as the
permittivity of the medium. This sensor comprises at least one sensitive element capable of: injecting
waves, the injection being controlled by the application of an input
signal, and collecting received
waves, perturbed by physical properties of the medium related to said quantity, to form an output
signal having, with respect to the input
signal, a modulation from which a measurand indicative of said quantity of the medium is determined. The sensor also comprises a
control unit capable of generating said input signal with a
wave frequency to be injected corresponding to a chosen excitation frequency, and a
processing unit applying a
demodulation of the output signal to determine the corresponding measurand. In particular, the
processing unit is configured to cooperate with the
control unit to generate the input signal.The excitation frequency is adjusted according to the input and output signals using a
feedback loop within the
processing unit. This maintains a linear response of the output signal over a range of measurands by continuously adjusting the excitation frequency. The
feedback loop is thus configured to ensure constant sensor sensitivity over this range. (See Figure 4 for an abstract diagram.)