Surface acoustic wave devices advantages

Microcantilever sensors offer many orders of magnitude better sensitivity compared to other sensors such as quartz crystal microbalances (QCM), flexural plate wave oscillators (FPW), and surface acoustic wave devices (SAW). There are several distinct advantages of the microcantilever sensors compared to the above mentioned and other MEMS sensors ... 

There are several applications of ZnO that are due to its excellent piezoelectric properties [28,164]. Examples are surface-acoustic wave (SAW) devices and piezoelectric sensors [28,165-167]. Typically, SAW devices are used as band pass filters in the tele-communications industry, primarily in mobile phones and base stations. Emerging field for SAW devices are sensors in automotive applications (torque and pressure sensors), medical applications (chemical sensors), and other industrial applications (vapor, humidity, temperature, and mass sensors). Advantages of acoustic wave sensors are low costs, ruggedness, and a high sensitivity. Some sensors can even be interrogated wirelessly, i.e., such sensors do not require a power source. 

Perturbations of the medium adjacent to the device surface result in variations in the phase, amplitude, and velocity of the surface acoustic wave. Specifically, these properties will be affected by changes in the density, viscosity, or elastic properties of the medium in contact with the surface. Since the acoustic wave has an electric potential wave associated with it as well, the SAW can also be used to probe the dielectric and conductive properties of this surface medium. By far, the largest number of chemical sensor applications of SAW devices take advantage of the mass sensitivity of SAW oscillators. 

In the area of chemical sensors, thin polymer films are routinely used as coatings for the semi-selective sorption of chemical vapors. One sensor technology, the surface acoustic wave (SAW) device, has demonstrated excellent sensitivity as a vapor sensor when coated with films having appropriate solubility properties (2). To date, most sensor applications have utilized the extreme mass sensitivity of the devices. In this paper, we will examine the response mechanisms of the SAW sensor and demonstrate its sensitivity to changes in the elastic properties of the coating materials. Finally, we will discuss the significance of these results in terms of current sensor applications, and the advantages of the SAW for polymeric materials characterization. 

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