Love wave chemical sensors: design and optimisation. Case of organophosphorous compounds detection

Love wave sensors are now a relatively well known surface acoustic wave sensors type. They have many advantages on the other acoustic waves sensors, (mainly Rayleigh mode and bulk acoustic modes); among them we can notice two specials: better sensitivity and ability to operate in liquid medium. To maximize a sensor sensitivity, each of its components must be designed on this purpose. The chemical layer main characteristic is to have a good affinity versus the compound to detect. This considerably reduces the choice for sensitive material, thus the optimisation process concerns mainly the other parts of the structure. In this paper we focus on a three layered Love wave sensor platform optimisation to have a maximum sensitivity for a given sensitive layer studied for the detection of organophosphorous compounds. We start by explaining how the simulator is build: the kernel physical model equations, and the computing interface needed to extract information from the simulator kernel. Then we show the simulation results which led to final sensor design. Finally we conclude on the application field of such a simulation tool: it can be used for structure optimisation, material characterisation, and a deeper propagation phenomenon understanding.