Abstract

Piezoelectric material converts the incoming gas wave into acoustic wave for sensing purposes. This research article focusses on the MEMS based surface acoustic wave (SAW) device for gas sensing applications. A key unresolved design in MEMS-based SAW gas sensors is which substrate offers the most suitable balance between resonant-frequency behavior and electrically useful sensing response when the same device structure is used. The SAW device with aluminum interdigitated electrodes (IDT) is covered up using polyisobutylene(PIB) film mounted on a piezoelectric substrate. The PIB layer adsorbs volatile organic compounds (VOC) from air causing shift in resonant frequency caused by underlying piezoelectric material. This causes variation in electrical characteristics like electric field and electric potential which are important parameters connecting electromechanical coupling efficiency. Nine different piezoelectric materials are analyzed for its electrical behaviour. It is observed that LiNbO3, AlN, ZnO and BaTiO3 resulted in good electric field and voltage levels at higher frequency resonance thus proving them to be promising material for gas sensing applications.

Keywords

MEMS, SAW Device, Interdigitated Electrodes, Polyisobutylene, Piezoelectric, Electromechanical Coupling Efficiency,

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References

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