Ferroelectric film bulk acoustic wave resonators for liquid viscosity sensing

A concept of accurate liquid viscosity sensing, using bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators, is proposed. The proposed BAW resonators use thin ferroelectric films with the dc field induced piezoelectric effect allowing for generation of pure longitudinal acoustic waves in the thickness excitation mode. This makes it possible to utilize exclusively shear liquid particle displacement at the resonator side walls and, therefore, accurate viscosity evaluation. The BAW resonators with the dc field induced piezoelectric effect in 0.67BiFeO3–0.33BaTiO3 ferroelectric films are fabricated and their liquid viscosity sensing properties are characterized. The resonator response is analyzed using simple model of a harmonic oscillator damped by a viscous force. It is shown that the resonator Q-factor is inversely proportional to the square root of the viscosity-density product. The viscosity measurement resolution is estimated to be as high as 0.005 mPa s, which is 0.5% of the water viscosity. VC 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4819327]