Study of the Effect of the Operating Frequency of a GaN Lamb Wave Device to Viscosity and Protein Sensing

• Published in: IEEE sensors journal 2016-10, Vol.16 (19), p.7028-7036
• Main Authors: Pantazis, Alexandros K., Konstantinidis, George, Gizeli, Electra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic devices; Acoustic wave sensor; Acoustic waves; Acoustics; biosensor; Gallium nitride; GaN; Lamb wave device; protein-protein interaction; Proteins; Sensitivity; Sensors; Viscosity; viscosity sensor
• ISSN: 1530-437X; 1558-1748
• DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2016.2596904

Shear-operating frequency is known to affect the sensitivity of acoustic wave sensor devices to both chemical and biological sensing, e.g., the detection of solutions' viscosity and protein adsorption. Lamb wave devices have been considered to be limited to low operating frequencies (5-40 MHz) due to their configuration. Here, acoustic devices based on single crystalline GaN membrane were used for liquid-based applications by monitoring the lowest symmetrical mode S0 of a Lamb wave in the range of 142-458 MHz. We evaluated the response of the acoustic devices by monitoring the amplitude and phase of the wave during the application of various concentrations of glycerol on the device surface. In addition, we demonstrated a strong correlation between mass sensitivity and device operating frequency, as measured during the specific binding of biotinylated IgG on the neutravidin modified membrane. Importantly, our results indicate that a decisive parameter in choosing the optimum frequency is the nature of the final application. Lower operating frequencies (