A NOVEL MONOLITHIC PIEZOELECTRIC SENSOR
M.G. Schweyer, J. A. Hilton*, J. E. Munson and J.C. Andle,
BIODE, Inc., 20 Freedom Pkwy,Bangor, ME 04401, USA
*Currently withInnovative Research Opportunities, Brewer, ME04412, USA
l. M. Hammond, R.M. Lec and Q. Lin,
Department of Electricaland Computer Engineering, U. Maine, Orono.ME 04469, USA
ABSTRACT
A novel Monolithic Piezoelectric Sensor (MPS) is
presented for the detection of physical, chemical and
biochemicalmeasurands. This new sensor overcomes
specific deficiencies associated with the Quartz Crystal
Microbalance (QCM) whilestill employing a well-
characterized, temperature-stable Thickness-Shear
Mode (TSM). The sensor is applicable to both gaseous
and liquid phase measurements; however, the principal
benefit of the MPS is in liquid phase measurements. In
these applications, it offers the ability to operate simple,
yet stable, oscillator circuits in relatively viscous media.
The proposed sensor structure is based on a two-
pole coupled resonator, inwhich mechanical coupling
between the electrical input and output determines the
electrical
properties. This structure offers approxi-
mately 180" of phase shift over its 3dB bandwidth with
nominally 180" of insertionphaseat the symmetric
resonant frequency and approximately 0" of insertion
phase at theantisymmetric resonant frequency.
Simple oscillator circuits may be implemented
which measure the symmetric frequency, the antisym-
metric frequency or the nominal center frequency. This
novel MPS sensor structure should accelerate the com-
mercialization of piezoelecaic sensor technology, par-
ticularly in such areas as chemical, biochemicaland
environmental testing.
INTRODUCTION
Of the availablepiezoelectric sensors, thebest
known is the simplest and oldest Structure, namely the
QCM. This configuration is functionally basedupon
the TSM resonance of an AT-quartz or similar crystal.
A typical QCM structure consists of two parallel elec-
trodes, one on the top and the other on the bottom of a
crystal plate. The resulting parallel plate capacitor ex-
hibits resonances associated with the electromechanical
standing waves in the plate. Well-designed devices ex-
hibit a single significant electromechanical resonance
and its odd harmonics.
The QCM has several positive features, including
simplicity of manufacture,ability to withstandharsh
environments, temperature stability of the series reso-
nant frequency and good sensitivity to additional mass
deposited on the crystal surface. When operated in air,
0-7803-4153-81971$10.00 0 1997 IEEE
the mechanical resonance has high Q (wL,,,/R,), which
results in a very narrow bandwidth resonance.
Because the shear wave does not radiate apprecia-
bleenergy into the liquid, the sensor is theoretically
applicable to liquidphasemeasurements.However,
viscous losses in the liquid result in substantially higher
values of resistance. The addedresistance results in
much broader bandwidth resonances. In addition, the
resistance at resonance becomes large compared to the
relatively small shunt reactance of C. for highly viscous
liquids and the shunt capacitance limits therange of
resistance that can be accommodated.
The QCM is a two-terminal device that requires at
least one of the active electrical terminals to be placed
in contact with the measurand for sensing. In thegas
phase,there are few constraints on the mounting or
electrical connectivity of the resonator within the cir-
cuit. In the liquid phase, however,it is critical to ensure
that the fluiddoes not electrically short the positive and
negative electrodes. Therefore, a fluid cell is required
to ensure that only one electrode is perturbed. Since
any stray capacitance between the sensing electrode and
RF ground, via the fluid, can significantly alter the im-
pedanceproperties of the crystal, it is important to
maintain the sensingsurface at RF ground.
A more robust and simple TSM based sensor is re-
quired. The ideal TSM structure would retain the posi-
tive features of the QCM, including simplicity, rugged-
ness,temperaturestabilityandmass sensitivity. Ide-
ally, the structure would be incorporated into the oscil-
lator circuitry with one groundedelectrode and separate
input and output electrodes. Finally, no critical circuit
elements are required to derive thenecessaryphase
shift to completethe oscillator loop. This eliminates
the need for tuning of the circuit and eliminates insta-
bilities due to capacitor and inductor temperature coef-
ficients.
Such a feedback element is well known in signal
processing applications and has beenknown as the
Monolithic Dual Resonator (MDR), the Coupled Reso-
natorFilter(CRF) and other names indicative ofthe
underlyingmonolithic crystal filter topology. A great
dealofdesignand analysis literature describes the
MDR [l], which may be directly applied to the design
of suitable vapor phase detectors. Modification to ac-
count for viscous losses is required for accurate fluid
1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM - 371
 phase design. The resulting sensor is called the mono-
lithic piezoelectric sensor (MPS) [Z].
MPS PROTOTYPE DESIGN
Figure 1 depicts the physical structure of the MPS.
transducer. The resulting frequency was then employed
as the cutoff frequency in the one dimensional (Z) lon-
gitudinal modelof the device.
CQ

TT
This smctuse is simple to manufactuse,packageand
instrument. It is rugged and reliable. The signal trans-
mission is acoustic andis thus both stable and easily
perturbed by added
mass. Sensing occurs on a
grounded electrode. Other electrode geometries are
allowableandrectangulargeometries are particularly
simpler to design and model.

Figure 2. The MPS equivaiml circuit formists d two QCM equivalent

circuit. with mehsnied coupling Inodeled as mutual inductance) snd n
p ~ i t rspsrlhncr.
k Other models h a d on A and I-induetor networks
.IC equivdenl to tk mutual inductws mar m-ce

Longitudinalparameters were varied suchthat a

secondpair of longitudinal modes were allowed but
would exhibit poor trapping. If this approach were ap-
plied to filter design, poorrejectionwouldresult.
However, in the current application, theonly consid-
erations are that an oscillator only be able to lock onto a
singlemodeandthatthesecondsymmetricmode be
sufficiently
removed from the first anti-symmetric
mode.Thiswasaccomplished by selecting a suffi-
cientlylowmutual coupling between the resonators,
Figure 2 presents the suggested equivalent circuit, such that the bandwidths of the first and second longi-
which is obtained by modeling mechanical and electri- tudinal mode pairs were small compared to the separa-
cal coupling betweentwo identical resonators. The tion betweenthe pairs of modes.
mechanical coupling
. . occurs due to the overlap of
acoustic fields in the two resonators. The coupling is
well modeled as mutual coupling between the motional
I 0.33 mm
inductors. The QCM equations describe all of the com-
ponents of the equivalent circuit except the mutual cou-
Thickness (Y)
Electrode Width (X) Illmm I
pling between the motional inductors, M, and the para-
sitic gap capacitance, C,, between the electrodes.
Electrical coupling occurs due to the capacitance, C,
Electrode Length (Z)

Area
I7mm
I3mm
77 mm’
I
between the closely spaced electrodes. While C, is on CO 9.3 pF
the order of 1-10 pF, C, is on the order of 0.01-0.1 pF. Alpha (turnsratio) ,131
Therefore, C, is typicallynegligible in narrowband- Cm 59.33 fF
width models. Lm 0.017 H
A previous MPS design [Z]provided useful infor- Aluminum Thickness 150 nm, patterned
mation on the properties and applicability of MPS de- Gold Thickness 150 nm, continuous
vices;however, it wasnotoptimally designed. The
energy trapping solutions of Smythe [l] were employed Table 1. Dtaip p m e l c r r and equivdmt circuit values for air l a d e d
in a refined Mathcad @ modell to determine the largest operation dthe opiimized design

electrode areas which would allow “single” mode op-
eration. Itwasassumedthatan antisymmetric trans-
verse mode (alongX) would not electrically couple to a
symmetric device. Thus, the width was maximized and
the metal thickness was selected to critically exclude
the third transverse mode. In this manner, only a single
trapped transverse mode was electrically coupled to the
Due to the interactionbetweenthedesignvari-
ables, an iterative procedure was employed. A further
consideration was to minimize the fixture losses while
allowing rubber O-rings to be employed on a standard
1” diameter 5 MHz crystal. This places an upper limit
on the electrode dimensions. Table 1 presents the de-

372 - 1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

sign data for the optimized sensor. Further reductions pling agrees with theory and a traditional two-pole re-
in insertion loss are possible; however, a larger crystal sponse is observedforlow viscosity liquids.Under
diameter or thinner plate would be required. coupling exists for liquids more viscousthan 50% glyc-
erin,for which a Butterworthresponse is observed.
MPS PROTOTYPE PROPERTIES Phase data ispresented in Figure 5.
The predicted frequencyresponse is presentedin
Figure 3. Three curves present the range of electrical
transferefficiency in a 50 ohmsystemfor typical
operating conditions. Air loaded responses are relevant
to gassensing.Lowconcentrations of glycerin ap-
proximate biochemical sensingin dilute plasma orwell-
buffered saline solutions. The operation of the sensor
in motor oil is also relevant for automotive and other
machinery applications.

m S 501 5.02 5m 5m 5112

-W)
Figure 5. Representative experimental data for the phase
of S*.: Responses were measured for air, motor oil (light
Ilnes) and various concentrationsof glycerin (heavy lines).

..
4.8) 5.m rtn La 5m SW hOl
*.glr*W

Figure 3. Theoretical response of the optimized MPS in

air, 2435% glycerin and 1OW-40motor oil. The Eagle-
ware @ model does not currently include anhsrmoniw.

O I Z 3 1 5 ~ 1 1 P I
Sq"nna(dRo.E..

Figure 6. Theoretical dependence of frequency on the

liquid property, sqrt(p.11)(lines) and experimental data
(points). Data is shown for the 0,90 and 180 degree phase
points.
4 89 5 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.06 5.05
F n q u m (W)
The asymmetric resonance is insensitive to viscous
or density properties of the liquid while the symmetric
Figure 4. Representative experimental data for the mag- resonanceexhibits a strongerdependence thanpre-
nitude of .:
2
S Responses were measured for air, motor oil dicted by thicknessshearmode(TSM) theory [31.
(light lines) and various concentrations of glycerin (heavy Theoretical and experimentaldataarecompared in
lines). Figure 6. There is a consistentoffsetby whichthe
Figure 4 presents the corresponding experimental theoretical model underestimates the device frequency,
data for the magnitude of Szll. The second longitudinal which is probablyanerror inthickness. Theexperi-
mode is clearly observable but is well removed from mental data are in excellent qualitative agreement with
thefundamental mode.Careful observationalso re- the Eagleware @ model andare in goodquantitative
veals some effect of the second transverse mode; how- agreement within experimental error. In particular, the
ever, the coupling is extremely weak. The mutual cou- antisymmetricdata is in excellentagreement.The

1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM - 373

 center frequency data (90” point) is in excellent agree-
ment with both the Eagleware @ model and TSM the-
ory [3]. This is also true of the symmetric resonance
(180”)data.
CONCLUSIONS
Quartz crystal technology has demonstrated excel-
lent promise for numerous sensor applications. The
temperature stability and high dynamic range of the
resulting sensors have made this technology extremely
attractive. While gas-phase sensor solutions have been
commercialized, very few liquid-based sensors have
been ableto reliably operate in field-portable instru-
mentation.
The current work presents a novel approach to em-
ploying thickness shear mode (TSM) piezoelectric sen-
sors to both gas-based and liquid-based sensing. The
well-known monolithic dual resonator (MDR) offers
attractive alternatives to the instrumentation of quartz
TSMsensors in oscillator circuits. In particular, the
inclusion of a switched phase inverter would allow the
sequential measurement of both the symmetric and an-
tisymmetric resonant frequencies.
Both resonant modes are seen to be equally sensi-
tive to mass loading by a thin solid film.The sensitiv-
ity is identical to other TSM devices for low-viscosity
films. Thetwo resonant modes exhibit different be-
havior to viscous liquid loading. By measuring both
frequencies, it is possible to distinguish liquid proper-
ties from those of the solid film. As is the case for the
QCM, the MPS cannot distinguish liquid density from
viscosity. The use of twosensors, one with a corn-
gated surface and the other with a smooth surface over-
comes this limitation [4].
It is possible to construct a single-frequency oscil-
lator which is sensitive to bound mass but immune to
solution effects by selecting 0” oscillation conditions.
While this technique is not rigorously immune to vis-
cosity, experiment and theory indicate very little sensi-
tivity of the 0” resonance to viscosity.
FUTURE WORK
While the MPS is promising, several issues must
be addressed before viable sensors can be developed.
Optimized devices must be designed which minimize
compressional wave generation [5,6]. Low noise meth-
ods of altering the amplifier phase between 0”and 180”
are desirable in order to create a dual mode oscillator.
Frequency-sensitivity tradeoffs must be evaluated
which compare the MPS sensitivity to its noise per-
formance as afunction of frequency [7].
Once optimized devices are designed, real Sensor
applications should be pursued in order to verify the
applicability of the technique to improved biochemical,
electrochemical and other liquid-phase sensor applica-
tions.
374 - 1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BIODE wishes to acknowledge the State of Maine
for funding through the Center for Innovation in Bio-
technology and the Center for Technology Transfer.
BIODE wishes to acknowledge the US Army for sup-
port under contract DAMD17-95C-5033. The views,
opinions, and/or findings contained in this report are
those of the authors and should not be construed as an
ofticial Department of the Army position, policy or
decision unless so designated by other documentation.
The authors wish to acknowledge Dr. John Vete-
lino of the University of Maine and Dr. Steve Martin of
Sandia National Labs for useful discussions.
Most importantly, the authors thank Reichl Haskell
and Jason Ouellette of the Laboratory for Surface Sci-
ence and Technology (LASST) at the University of
Maine for fabricating prototype sensors.
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