Simulation of SAW gas sensors with polymer layers using the finite element method

Abstract

This paper presents a finite element (FE) model for SAW gas sensors with polymer layers, taking into account not only the mass loading effect, but also the viscoelastic properties of polymer layers, including loss. The FE model considers both variations of layer density and thickness with absorbed gas concentration. The damped eigenvalue analysis allows the calculation of complex propagation constants. This is an improvement over previously published FE works in this field, e.g. [1], which considered only the frequency shift and neglected the attenuation.