Dual SAW sensor technique for determining mass and modulus changes

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors, which are sensitive to a variety of surface changes, have been widely used for chemical and physical sensing. The ability to control or compensate for the many surface forces has been instrumental in collecting valid data. In cases in which it is not possible to neglect certain effects, such as frequency drift with temperature, methods such as the "dual sensor" technique have been utilized. This paper describes a novel use of a dual sensor technique, using two sensor materials (quartz and GaAs) to separate out the contributions of mass and modulus of the frequency change during gas adsorption experiments. The large modulus change in the film calculated using this technique and predicted by the Gassmann equation provide a greater understanding of the challenges of SAW sensing.