Guided SH-SAW sensing system for liquid viscosity sensing applications

In this study, a liquid sensing system was developed and fabricated for the detection of liquid viscosity. The system consists of layered ZnO/XY-LiTaO3 SAW devices and a flow chamber with inlet and outlet. The viscosity sensing characteristic of the device was investigated by measuring transmission characteristics with various concentrations of glycerol. The insertion loss change and frequency shift of the device were measured from -13 dB to -33 dB and 65 kHz to 1.06 MHz respectively while the concentration of glycerol was increased from 2% to 50% (vol%). The sensitivity of the device was 7.9 × 10-7 m2 s/kg. The results showed that a ZnO/XY-LiTaO3 SAW device is capable of detecting different concentrations of the glycerol making it a potential candidate for liquid viscosity sensing applications.