A study on a highly sensitive strain sensor based on rayleigh wave

Piezoresistive-type, capacitive-type, and optical-type sensors have mainly been used for measuring a strain. However, in building a sensor network for remote monitoring using these conventional sensors there are disadvantages such as the complexity of a measuring system including wireless communication circuitry and high cost. In this paper, we demonstrates a highly-sensitive surface acoustic wave (SAW) strain sensor which is advantageous to harsh environments and wireless network. We designed and fabricated the SAW strain sensor. The SAW strain sensor attached on a specimen was tested with a tensile tester. The strain on the sensor surface was measured with a commercial strain gauge and compared with that obtained from strain analysis. The central frequency shift of the SAW sensor was measured with a network analyzer. The sensitivity of the SAW strain sensor is 134 Hz/μe which is high compared to previous results.