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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 11, NO. 4, APRIL 2011

Wireless Calibration of a Surface Acoustic

Wave Resonator as a Strain Sensor
Brian Donohoe, Dermot Geraghty, and Garret E. ODonnell

AbstractIn this paper, calibration data for a single one-port

surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator strain sensor fabricated
on 36 (AT) quartz is presented. This substrate was chosen as it
is traditionally associated with temperature stability in SAW resonator design. To investigate the sensor as a general-purpose strain
sensing element the sensors were bonded using standard adhesives
and calibrated using a special-purpose test apparatus and a repeatable testing methodology. Bonding effects and thermal sensitivities are empirically investigated. Longitudinal and transverse
strain sensitivities at a range of temperatures are presented as well
as the variation in sensor sensitivity as function of alignment angle
to applied strain.
Index TermsCalibration, sensor, strain, surface acoustic wave
(SAW) .

I. INTRODUCTION

Fig. 1. Bare die SAWR strain sensor fabricated on AT-X quartz.

ODERN engineering processes require increasingly

sensor-rich environments to measure traditional measurands such as strain and temperature. Integrating multiple
sensors into an application creates its own installation challenges, e.g. direct wiring to sensors placed in inaccessible
locations can be especially cumbersome. Sensors based upon
the surface acoustic wave (SAW) are receiving increasing
interest due to the low cost, high reproducibility, and high
manufacturing yield. Furthermore the passive, wireless and
relevantly robust nature of the SAW sensors means that they
can be deployed in harsh, inhospitable environments where
traditional sensing elements would fail [1].
Recently, wireless SAW temperature sensors and interrogation systems have come to market [2], [3]. SAW torque and
pressure sensors have been documented and deployed in automotive applications demonstrating significant advantages over
traditional solutions [4], [5]. While SAW devices have been
shown to demonstrate excellent potential as physical sensors
the SAW sensors developed to date are highly application specific. A general-purpose SAW strain sensor which could be utilized in the same manner as the foil resistive strain gauge would
be highly practical. Both SAW delay line and SAW resonators
(SAWRs) have been shown to demonstrate potential as sensors
Manuscript received April 21, 2010; revised June 30, 2010; accepted August
06, 2010. Date of publication September 27, 2010; date of current version February 09, 2011. This work was supported by the Higher Education Authority
under the Program for Research in Third-Level Institutions. The associate editor coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was
Prof. Bernhard Jakoby.
The authors are with the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (e-mail: donohobk@tcd.ie).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2010.2070492

[6]. However, for mechanical sensing operations resonators are

preferred over delay line devices due to their narrowband performance, smaller die size, and low insertion loss when compared
to delay line devices of equal dimension [7].
To date, limited calibration data have been published for
SAWR sensors. The most complete set of calibration results on
the performance of SAWR torque sensor fabricated on ST-X
quartz can be found in [7]. The variation in strain sensitivity
to changes in temperature makes sensors fabricated on ST-X
unsuitable for general-purpose strain sensing. This paper
presents calibration data for SAWR strain sensors fabricated on
temperature-stable AT-X quartz (see Fig. 1).
The SAWR strain sensors were calibrated unpackaged as
sensor packaging tends to alter the performance of a strain
sensor [8], [9].
Due to the novelty of SAWR strain sensors and their limited commercial availability, a standardized calibration procedure for SAWR strain sensors has not been adopted. The ASTM
E251-92 [10] standardized calibration procedure for metallic
bonded resistance strain gauges was the closest applicable standard and was used as the basis for a SAWR strain sensor calibration procedure.
A standard nonapodized one-port SAWR strain sensor with
an unbiased resonant frequency of 433.42 MHz was calibrated,
and the performance was investigated. In this paper, the apparent
strain profile curve for a bare die SAWR strain sensor is presented. The response of the SAWR strain sensor to longitudinal
and transverse strain is presented. SAWR strain sensitivity at
various orientations to applied strains is also investigated. The
sensors are interrogated using a wireless interrogation unit from
Sengenuity Ltd. [3].

1530-437X/$26.00 2010 IEEE

DONOHOE et al.: WIRELESS CALIBRATION OF A SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVE RESONATOR

Fig. 2. Schematic of a SAWR showing a uniform interdigital transducer (IDT)

and the reflective gratings fabricated on a piezoelectric substrate.

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Fig. 3. Interrogation method for SAWR sensor. A burst RF signal is transmitted

to the SAWR sensor. The response of the SAWR once the interrogation signal
has been removed is to transmit a decaying sinusoidal RF response typically 6
 s in duration. PSD analysis of the returned response is used to estimate the
resonant frequency.

II. SAWR STRAIN SENSING

A. Strain-Frequency Response
SAW devices operate by a combination of piezoelectricity
and the propagating wave phenomenon called the surface
acoustic wave. A surface acoustic wave is a mechanical wave
which propagates close to the surface of a material with velocity
[11]. A schematic of a typical SAWR strain sensor is shown
in Fig. 2.
For a SAWR with an IDT of constant aperture and electrode
pitch, the SAWR will resonate when an electrical voltage is apwhich is related to surface
plied to the IDT at a frequency
wave velocity
and the electrode pitch by the well-known
formula [12]

Fig. 4. On-wafer SAWR S response at 20 C measured using an Agilent

E5061a VNA. Resonance was measured at 433.412 MHz and 28 dB. The
spurious wave mode was at 433.59 MHz with a response of 2.12 dB.

(1)
Applying strain biases to the sensor causes deformation of
the IDT and reflectors, changing the electrode pitch. The application of external strain biases introduces stresses into the substrate material; this modifies the stiffness coefficients of the substrate which alter the surface acoustic wave velocity [13]. The
combined result is a linear change in the resonant frequency of
the SAWR device with strain [14].
B. Wireless Measurement
The resonant frequency of the SAWR strain sensor can be determined wirelessly by using a pulsed interrogation method [15]
or a phased locked loop method [16]. For this work the Sengenuity TempTracker [17] was used to wirelessly interrogate the
SAWR strain sensors using the pulsed interrogation method. A
description of the pulsed interrogation method for SAWR strain
sensors can be found in [15].
It can be shown that a surface acoustic wave is generated
strongly at frequencies close to resonance [18]. Loading a
SAWR with a radio-frequency (RF) interrogation burst at a
frequency close to the resonance frequency will cause a surface
acoustic wave to be generated within the IDT. The acoustic
wave propagates within the cavity between the reflective gratings; upon removal of the interrogation burst a decaying RF
signal is retransmitted to the interrogator. This is caused by
reconversion of the SAW to an RF signal. Applying RF signals across the expected operational bandwidth of the SAWR

strain sensors and comparing the power spectral density of

the response signals, the resonant frequency of the SAWR
strain sensor can be determined as the signal corresponding to
maximum PSD (see Fig. 3).
C. Calibration Sensors
For this work a nonapodized one-port resonator design operating with an unbiased resonant frequency of 433.42 MHz was
used. Each sensor consisted of an IDT containing 121 electrodes
with a constant pitch of 1.8081 m, deposition thickness of
1100 , metallization ratio of 0.65, and two reflector banks each
containing 280 electrodes. The sensors were fabricated on Y rotated 36 -X alpha cut quartz and manufactured using standard
photolithographic processes on a 4-inch quartz wafer. The senmm
mm
sors were then diced to a die measuring mm
rewith 2 mm 2 mm bonding pads. The typical SAWR
sponse is shown in Fig. 4.
center frequency response less
Only sensors with a
than 10 db and a spurious transverse wave component response greater than 2.5 db were considered for this work.
The presence of a large transverse wave component in the
response can cause the interrogation unit to misinterpret
this as the dominant wave mode. This can be avoided with
careful mounting, providing sufficient grounding of the sensor
and avoiding nonuniform stress distributions in the SAWR
substrate [19]. A dipole antenna of length 16 cm was used for

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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 11, NO. 4, APRIL 2011

Fig. 5. Finalized SAWR calibration beam fabricated on EN-8 mild steel.

Fig. 7. Comparison of the mounted and on-wafer S

sensor at 20 C.

response of SAWR strain

Fig. 6. Schematic of the constant stress cantilever beam experimental apparatus

for calibration of SAWR strain sensors.

both interrogator and sensor. The spacing between the sensor

and interrogator antennas was 10 cm. Electrical connection
between the calibration sensors and antenna was made through
a double ground plane PCB measuring 20 mm 20 mm. Silver
wire and conductive silver paint epoxy provided the electrical
connections between SAWR bonding pads and a pair of solder
pads located on the PCB.
III. CALIBRATION PROCEDURE
The ASTM E251-92 [10] and the British Standard
BS6888:1988 [20] are two standardized test methods for
testing the performance characteristics of foil resistive gauges.
As the closest applicable standards for SAWR strain sensor
calibration they were used as the basis for the SAWR strain
sensor calibration procedure.
The ASTM E251-92 presents three separate test methods
for calibrating strain gauges: the Constant Moment Beam Test
Method, the Constant Stress Cantilever Beam Test Method,
and the Direct Tension of Compression Test Method. The finalized SAWR test rig is based upon Constant Stress Cantilever
Beam Test Method described in ASTM E251-92. The overall
geometry of the beam was reduced from that described in the
ASTM E251-92 standard to reduce the loading requirements
needed to generate the required surface strains for calibration.
The design of the beam was preformed using Pro Engineer and
the Mechanica toolbox. The finalized beam geometry is shown
in Fig. 5.
A schematic of the experimental apparatus can be seen in
Fig. 6. A linear actuator was used to provide a displacement at
the free end of the calibration beam. Strain gauges from Vishay
Micro Measurements (Part number L2A-06-125LT-120) were
mounted in parallel with the SAWR strain sensor to provide reference strain levels. Strain values were recorded using a National Instruments USB strain gauge module NI-9237. Control
of the linear actuator and measurements taken from the SAWR
interrogator and reference strain gauges were preformed using
the National Instruments LabView environment. An oven fitted
with radiant heaters was used for elevated temperature tests.

Fig. 8. Temperature response of an unstrained SAWR strain sensor.

The sensors were tested to a micro strain level

of 400
tensile and compressive in incremental steps of 50 and the resulting change in SAWR resonant frequency recorded. The calibration process was then repeated in an enclosed heated environment and the temperature incrementally increased to 80 C.
IV. BONDING OF SAWR STRAIN SENSORS
For each calibration test the SAWR sensors were bonded to
the test beam using a Vishay M-Bond 600 kit and the recommended attachment procedure [21]. The disadvantage when
using a foil gauge polymer adhesive on quartz is that the strain
coupling between the stiff sensor substrate and the polymer
adhesive is poor [22]. The M-Bond 600 adhesive primarily used
as foil resistive gauge glue shows excellent strain coupling for
foil resistive gauges. However, when used with SAWR strain
sensors a bonding mismatch occurs between the stiff SAWR
strain sensors and the polymer adhesive causing a slight decrease in strain sensitivity. A creep effect in the sensor response
can also be observed due to this mismatch. In order to negate
the impact of the creeping effect the cycle rate for the testing
procedure was minimized to 15 min for loading unloading
cycle. Stresses induced during the mounting process with
M-Bond 600 cause a typical reduction in frequency response of
0.02% from on-wafer values see Fig. 7.

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1029

Fig. 9. Direction of strain applied to SAWR strain sensors calibration for longitudinal and transversely applied strain.

V. SENSITIVITY OF SAWR STRAIN SENSORS

For SAWR strain sensors the linear relationship between increasing strain levels and changes in resonances frequency is
.
measured by sensor sensitivity
(2)
where is the unstrained resonant frequency of the SAWR,
is the resonant frequency at a strain level .
The temperature sensitivity is calculated as
(3)
is the resonant frequency of the SAWR at the amwhere
and
is the resonant at an elevated tembient temperature
perature .
A. Temperature Sensitivities
Temperature biases cause a frequency shift of the SAWR.
This response of SAW resonators when exposed to thermal biases is a function of the properties of the piezosubstrate, the processes used during fabrication, and critically the metallization
ratio [23]. In an uncompensated strain sensor temperature biases will appear as an apparent strain skewing the results. However, in applications where the strain levels are much larger than
the apparent strain due to temperature compensation may not
be required. The general frequency profile for SAW devices as
a function of temperature is shown in Fig. 8. The profile of the
response reverses at a point of inflection called the turnover temperature [24]. As a linear temperature response is the preferred
response to temperature for sensors, the presence of the turnover
temperature increases the complexity of calibration equations
for the sensors.
While the operational temperature range of the SAWR
strain sensor can vary by fabricating on substrates other than
quartz, the aluminium depositions used for fabricating the
majority of SAWR strain sensors has an operational range up
to about 200 C after which electrode softening and migration
occurs [25].
The temperature profile for a SAWR used in this work is
shown in Fig. 8. For the elevated temperature calibration the

SAWR strain sensors were free-standing, i.e., not mounted on

the test beam.
of a
Without the adhesive, the temperature sensitivity
the nonadhered bare die SAWR strain sensor was recorded at
approximately 450 Hz C over the temperature range 25 C to
70 C. Beyond this, the turnover effect reduces the linearity of
the sensor temperature response.
VI. CALIBRATION RESULTS
The mounted SAWR strain sensors were calibrated to investigate the effects of strain on sensor performance at a range of
temperatures. The strain response of the SAWR to strain applied perpendicular and parallel (Fig. 9) to the IDT were of particular interest. The calibration tests require the SAWR strain
sensor to undergo three repeated loading cycles. The SAWR
, unloaded
strain sensor is loaded from a value of to
and then loaded to a strain level 400 . The sensor is subjected to this loading profile three times. The performance of
the SAWR strain sensor is then evaluated by the calculating the
hysteresis of the sensors in loading and unloading, the repeatability of the measured SAWR response at each load point, and
the standard deviation of the measured SAWR response at each
fixed loading point. Strain sensitivities were calculated as the
slope of the linear least squares best fit line fitted to the calibration data. The coefficient of determination R for the fitted
line was found to be greater than 0.999 indicating a highly linear
fit of the calibration data. Elevated temperature tests were performed up to 80 C. Beyond this temperature, the SAWR strain
sensor temperature profile becomes nonlinear and severe hysteresis was observed in the sensor response rendering the testing
ineffectual.
A. Longitudinal Strains
The SAWR strain sensors were orientated in order that SAW
propagation was in the direction of the applied strains as shown
in Fig. 9. The sensors were strained in incremental steps of
from
to
, and the corresponding strained resonant
frequency was measured.
Typical calibration results are presented in Table I with the
calibration curve shown in Fig. 10. Hysteresis effects account
for a difference in loading and unloading of approximately 4

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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 11, NO. 4, APRIL 2011

TABLE I
LONGITUDINAL STRAIN CALIBRATION DATA

Fig. 11. SAWR strain sensor response to strains applied perpendicular to the
direction of SAW propagation in the IDT.

Fig. 10. SAWR strain sensor response to strains applied in the direction of
SAW propagation in the IDT.
TABLE II
TRANSVERSE STRAIN CALIBRATION DATA

When mounted with the IDT perpendicular to applied strains

the response of the SAWR is the opposite of a SAWR mounted
in the direction of the applied strain. For a transversely mounted
SAWR fabricated on AT quartz, tensile strains result in an increase in resonance frequency while compressive strains show
a decrease. The slight variation in typical hysteresis is most
likely due to variations in the repeatability of the bonding between sensors and test beam. Hysteresis values are comparable
of the
to that reported for longitudinal strain sensors. The
transversely mounted sensor is also stable across a 60 C range
with a variation of 4%. The presence of the turnover temperature causes a decrease in sensor sensitivity of 20%.
VII. DISCUSSION ON LONGITUDINAL AND
TRANSVERSE STRAIN PROFILES

at 20 C. This increases up to 40
at 80 C. The increase in
hysteresis is most likely caused by degradation in the bonding
interface caused by the elevated temperature. For the mounted
SAWR a frequency shift of 34 kHz over a 40 C temperature
range was observed. This equates to a temperature sensitivity of
926 Hz C for a mounted sensor. This value is approximately
twice that for the unmounted SAW temperature response and is
attributed to stress effects influencing the turnover temperature
[26]. The temperature drift for an unstrained mounted sensor
C. The stability of
for resonators fabricated on
is 2
AT-X quartz is also far superior than that reported for ST-X cuts
[7]. Before the turnover effects of the piezoelectric substrate and
hysteresis influences due to the adhesive, the variation in
is 1.4%; however at 80 C this variation increases to 11%.
B. Transverse Strains
SAWR strain sensors were mounted with the IDT perpendicular to the applied longitudinal strain. Calibration was performed with the same procedure as that used for longitudinal
strain calibration. Transverse sensitivities are expressed as a
function of the longitudinal applied strain in Table II with the
calibration curve shown in Fig. 11.

From Figs. 10 and 11 it can be observed that altering the orientation of the IDT to applied strains has an effect on the response of the SAWR strain sensor. For certain quartz cuts the
frequency shifts in the SAWR strain sensors are a due to a combination of the changes in the IDT geometry and SAW velocity
[14]. Altering the orientation of the propagating SAW relative to
the applied strain field is a contributing factor in the reversal of
strain sensitivity; SAW velocity is sensitive to the magnitude of
transverse and longitudinal stress components in the substrate
relative to the SAW propagation direction. This change in the
frequency response when strains are applied transversely to the
direction of SAW propagation corresponds to predicted simulation results for SAW delay line device and SAWR ST-X quartz
[27], [28] where it was shown that changes in the SAW velocity
are a combination of the applied longitudinal and transverse
stresses in the substrate surface. The effects of IDT alignment
was investigated by orientating the IDT to strain fields as shown
in Fig. 12.
The changes in alignment of the SAWR change the orientation of the IDT and consequently the direction of the propagating SAW relative to applied the strain was altered. The reas a function of orientation can be
sults in the variation in
seen in Fig. 13. The shifts in resonant frequency of the SAWR
strain sensors are cancelled at an orientation of approximately
30 to the applied strain. At an orientation of 30 the sensitivity
or 4% of the strain sensitivity for
is approximately 20 Hz
longitudinal strains.

DONOHOE et al.: WIRELESS CALIBRATION OF A SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVE RESONATOR

1031

the SAWR devices and to Mr. Jumani Shravan of Sengenuity for

his input and advice. B. Donohoe personally thanks Dr. Brian
McCormack for many numerous and fruitful discussions.
REFERENCES

Fig. 12. Alignment of SAWR strain sensors to measure alignment sensitivity.

Fig. 13. Changes in S

as a function of orientation angle to applied strain.

VIII. CONCLUSIONS
A special-purpose calibration apparatus was designed and developed, and bare die one-port SAWR strain sensors have been
calibrated wirelessly using a commercially available SAWR interrogation unit. The SAWR strain sensors were bonded using a
polymer adhesive traditionally used in the attachment of foil resistive strain gauges. Good linearity was observed up to approximately 60 C after which creep effects, linear hysteresis, and
changes in sensitivities reduce sensor response to applied strain
considerably. This was attributed to a decrease in the strain coupling between the stiff SAWR strain sensor substrate and the
measurement surface, and the effects of the turnover temperature. The temperature stable strain sensitivity of this particular quartz cut makes it highly suitable for strain sensing applications. The results indicate that over a moderate temperature
range uncompensated strain measurement is possible.
The results also indicate that the strain sensitivities of SAWR
strain sensors are highly sensitive to orientation of the sensor
as well as to crystal cut and propagation direction of the SAW
relative to applied strain. As SAWR strain sensors require specialized packaging this has implications for the design of customized packaging for SAWR strain sensors.
As the behavior of a propagating SAW on quartz substrates
is highly sensitive to the rotation of the substrate as well as the
SAW propagation direction, the frequency-strain behavior described for a SAWR fabricated on AT-X quartz may not be analogous for all quartz substrates and propagation directions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to express sincere gratitude to Dr. Serguei
Kondratiev for his assistance and expertise during fabrication of

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Brian Donohoe received the B.A., B.A.I. degree in mechanical and manufacturing engineering from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, in 2008. He is currently working toward the Ph.D degree at the Manufacturing Technology and
Systems research group, Trinity College.
His major research interest is the development of surface acoustic wave devices for physical sensing, including design, calibration, and integration into
machining processes.

IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 11, NO. 4, APRIL 2011

Dermot Geraghty is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and holds

the B.A., B.A.I., and M.Sc. degrees in engineering.
He is currently a Lecturer in mechanical engineering at Trinity College. He
leads a number of research projects in the development of sensors for transportation and environmental applications. He also works on the development of
hardware architectures for high-performance computing on field-programmable
gate arrays.
Mr. Geraghty is a member of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland and the
Association for Computing Machinery.

Garret E. ODonnell is a graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology, the

University of Dublin, Trinity College, and the National University of Ireland,
and received the B.Sc. (Eng.) degree and Ph.D. degree in engineering.
He is currently a Lecturer in manufacturing engineering at Trinity College.
His research interests lie mainly in sensing the measurable phenomena during
materials processing. His research group is actively involved in sensor development, signal processing, and decision making in sensing applications ranging
from monitoring and adaptive control of machining processes to monitoring of
energy and power metering.
Dr. ODonnell is a Research Affiliate Member of The International Academy
of Production Engineering (CIRP), a member of the European Society of Precision Engineering (EUSPEN), and a member of the Institution of Engineers of
Ireland.