Abstract
Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices offer many attractive features for application as vapour phase chemical microsensors. This paper describes the characteristics of SAW devices and techniques by which they can be employed as vapour sensors. The perturbation of SAW velocity by polymeric coating films is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. Highest sensitivity can be achieved when the device is used as the resonating element in a delay line oscillator circuit. A simple equation has been developed from theoretical considerations which offers reasonably accurate quantitative predictions of SAW device frequency shifts when subjected to a given mass loading. In this mode the SAW device behaves very like conventional bulk-wave quartz crystal microbalances except that the sensitivity can be several orders of magnitude higher and the device size can be several orders of magnitude smaller. Detection of mass changes of a few femtograms by a SAW device having a surface area of 10−4 cm2 is theoretically possible.
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