Parametric study of SH-SAW device response to various types of surface perturbations

The current work provides an extensive study of SH-SAW response to various surface loading conditions. A parametric study was conducted by varying crucial functional parameters of the devices such as (i) piezoelectric substrate, (ii) operating frequency, and (iii) presence of waveguide. Twelve device configurations emerged out of various combinations of the above parameters. In order to be evaluated, the devices were subjected to various kinds of surface perturbations, namely (i) Au deposition, representing pure mass loading, (ii) glycerol solutions of various concentrations, representing liquid loading of a broad viscosity range, spanning both Newtonian and Maxwellian regions, and (iii) adsorption of proteins. The sensitivity in all cases was evaluated, and appropriate comparisons were made in order to fully characterize the systems and identify the most favorable device for each application.