In this work, bulk acoustic wave propagation properties of langasite single crystal excited by lateral electric field have been investigated. Three important crystal cuts have been identified for different operational modes of lateral field excitation （LFE） on langasite substrate, namely the （yxl）65° （pure-LFE mode）, （yxl）45° （quasi-LFE mode）, and （yxl）0° （pseudo-LFE mode）. Devices on langasite substrate with the above cuts were fabricated and tested, and the experimental results agree well with the theoretical analysis. It is found that a pure thickness shear mode exists in the （yxl）65° langasite LFE device with the bare side facing liquid, and no spurious mode is found due to its moderately large piezoelectric coupling factor. In addition, （yxl）0° langasite LFE device is also found suitable for liquid phase sensing applications.
Quartz crystal resonators （QCRs） with circular electrodes have been widely used for various liquid and gas sensing applications. In this work, quartz crystal resonators with elliptical electrodes were studied and tested for liquid property measurement. Mindlin＇s theory was used to optimize the dimension and geometry of the electrodes and a 5-MHz QCR with minimum series resistance and without any spurious modes was obtained. A series of AT-cut QCRs with elliptical electrodes of different sizes were fabricated and their sensing performances were compared to devices with circular electrodes. The experimental result shows that the device with elliptical electrodes can obtain lower resonance impedance and a higher Q factor, which results in a better loading capability. Even though the sensitivities of devices with elliptical and circular electrodes are found to be similar, the sensor with elliptical electrodes has much higher resolution due to a better frequency stability. The study indicates that the performance of QCRs with elliptical electrodes is superior to that of traditional QCRs with circular electrodes.
This paper investigates the properties of thickness extension mode excited by lateral electric field on LiNbO3 by using the extended Christoffel-Bechmann method. It finds that the lateral field excitation coupling factor for amode （quasi-extensional mode） reaches its maximum value of 28% on Xmcut LiNbO3. The characteristics of a lateral field excitation device made of X-cut LiNbO3 have been investigated and the lateral field excitation device is used for the design of a high frequency ultrasonic transducer. The time and frequency domain pulse/echo response of the LiNbO3 lateral field excitation ultrasonic transducer is analysed with the modified Krimholtz-Leedom-Matthae model and tested using traditional pulse/echo method. A LiNbO3 lateral field excitation ultrasonic transducer with the centre frequency of 33.44 MHz and the -6 dB bandwidth of 33.8% is acquired, which is in good agreement with the results of the Krimholtz-Leedom-Matthae model. Further analysis suggests that the LiNbO3 lateral field excitation device has great potential in the design of broadband high frequency ultrasonic transducers.
LiNbO3 has been found attractive for lateral field excitation （LFE） applications due to its high piezoelectric coupling. In this paper, bulk acoustic wave propagation properties for LiNbO3 single crystal excited by a lateral electric field have been investigated using the extended Christoffel Bechmann method. It is found that the LFE piezoelectric coupling factor for c mode reaches its maximum value of 95.46% when ψ = 0° for both （yxl）-58° and （yxwl）±60°/58° LiNbO3. The acoustic wave phase velocity of c mode TSM （thickness shear mode） changes from 3456 m/s to 3983 m/s as a function of ψ. Here ψ represents the angle between the lateral electric field and the crystallographic X-axis in the substrate major surface. A 5 MHz LFE device of （yxl）-58° LiNbO3 with ψ = 0° was designed and tested in air. A major resonance peak was observed with the motional resistance as low as 17 Ω and the Q-factor value up to 10353. The test result is well in agreement with the theoretical analysis, and suggests that the LFE LiNbO3 device can be a good platform for high performance resonator or sensor applications.
