The sensitivity of acoustic-wave microsensors coated with a viscoelastic film to mass changes and film modulus (changes) is examined. The study analyzes the acoustic load at the interface between the acoustic device and the coating. The acoustic load carries information about surface mass and film modulus; its determination has no restrictions in film thickness. Two regimes of film behavior can be distinguished:  the gravimetric regime, where the sensor response is mainly mass sensitive, and the nongravimetric regime, where viscoelasticity gains influence on the sensor response. We develop a method, which allows the assignment of the sensor signal to a gravimetric or a nongravimetric response. The critical value can be determined from oscillator measurements. The related limits for the coating thickness are not the same for the coating procedure and mass accumulation during chemical sensing. As an example, we present results from a 10 MHz quartz crystal resonator.

The electrical response of polymer-coated acoustic wave sensors depends on changes in the surface mass loading and changes in viscoelastic properties of the coating material. In this paper we consider the acoustic behaviour and the electrical response of a thickness-shear mode resonator on changes in shear parameters of the coating material at its fundamental frequency as well as its third and fifth harmonics. The changes in material properties were induced by temperature changes. Both a glassy and a rubbery polymer were investigated. The complex shear parameter and dynamic glass transition temperature were calculated from impedance measurements.

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Acoustic band gap materials, so-called phononic crystals, are introduced as a new platform for sensing material properties in small cavities. The sensor employs specific transmission windows within the band gap to determine properties of one component that builds the phononic crystal. The dependence of the frequency where transmission takes place is correlated to material properties, specifically to the sound velocity of a liquid. This value is related to several parameters of practical interest like the concentration of one component in a mixture or conversion rate in a microreactor. The capability of the concept will be demonstrated with a one-dimensional arrangement of solid plates and liquid-filled cavities and a two-dimensional periodic arrangement of liquid-filled holes in a solid matrix. The properties of 1D phononic crystals will be analysed in terms of the effective acoustic impedance and the resulting transmission behaviour and experimentally verified. The transmission properties of the 2D phononic crystal will be modelled with the layer multiple-scattering theory. Similar features which can be employed for sensing purposes will be discussed.

Acoustic wave devices with shear horizontal displacements, such as quartz crystal microbalances (QCM) and shear horizontally polarised surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) devices provide sensitive probes of changes at solid-solid and solid-liquid interfaces.Increasingly the surfaces of acoustic wave devices are being chemically or physically modified to alter surface adhesion or coated with one or more layers to amplify their response to any change of mass or material properties. In this work, we describe a model that provides a unified view of the modification in the shear motion in acoustic wave systems by multiple finite thickness loadings of viscoelastic fluids. This model encompasses QCM and other classes of acoustic wave devices based on a shear motion of the substrate surface and is also valid whether the coating film has a liquid or solid character. As a specific example, the transition of a coating from liquid to solid is modelled using a single relaxation time Maxwell model. The correspondence between parameters from this physical model and parameters from alternative acoustic impedance models is given explicitly. The characteristic changes in QCM frequency and attenuation as a function of thickness are illustrated for a single layer device as the coating is varied from liquid-like to that of an amorphous solid. Results for a double layer structure are given explicitly and the extension of the physical model to multiple layers is described. An advantage of this physical approach to modelling the response of acoustic wave devices to multilayer films is that it provides a basis for considering how interfacial slip boundary conditions might be incorporated into the acoustic impedance used within circuit models of acoustic wave devices. Explicit results are derived for interfacial slip occurring at the substrate-layer 1 interface using a single real slip parameter, s, which has inverse dimensions of impedance. In terms of acoustic impedance, such interfacial slip acts as a single-loop negative feedback. It is suggested that these results can also be viewed as arising from a double-layer model with an infinitesimally thin slip layer which gives rise to a modified acoustic load of the second layer. Finally, the difficulties with defining appropriate slip boundary conditions between any two successive layers in a multilayer device are outlined from a physical point of view.

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A transmission line equivalent circuit for piezoelectric transducers has been modified to provide modeling of lossy piezoceramic transducers. A lossy transmission line is used to model the mechanical losses. The equivalent circuit parameters are derived from analogies between electrical transmission lines and acoustic wave propagation. Implementation of the equivalent circuit model in SPICE is shown. Simulations and measurements in the time and frequency domain of a low-Q material and a multilayered ultrasonic sensor using a low-Q piezoceramic transducer are presented.

The utilization of quartz-crystal-microbalance sensors in liquids yields new requirements to the applied interface circuits. In the present article, the fundamentals of the measuring principle and advantages and drawbacks of suitable interface circuits are discussed. Special requirements of oscillators as interface circuits are outlined. Possible solutions to those requirements are investigated and two recently developed oscillator circuits are presented.