A SHEAR-HORIZONTAL ACOUSTIC PLATE MODE (SH-APM) SENSOR FOR BIOLOGICAL MEDIA

Acoustic wave devices are often used as chemical sensors. Those described in the literature are merely based on bulk waves or on surface waves (SAW), also called Rayleigh waves. In this paper we describe another type of device, based on shear-horizontal acoustic plate mode (SH-APM) waves. Experimental results with various modes concerning the influence of the temperature, the viscosity and the concentration of NaCl and tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris) in aqueous solution are presented: they show the better sensitivity of higher-order modes. These results show that this device can be used as a sensor in a biological medium.