Analysis of Acoustic Reflectors for SAW Temperature Sensor and Wireless Measurement of Temperature

In this study, a wireless and non-power SAW (surface acoustic wave) temperature sensor was developed. The single inter-digital transducer (IDT) of SAW temperature sensor of which resonance frequency is 434 MHz was fabricated on 128 degrees rot-X LiNbO3 piezoelectric substrate by semiconductor processing technology. To find optimal acoustic reflector for SAW temperature sensor, various kinds of acoustic reflectors were fabricated and their reflection characteristics were analyzed. The IDT type acoustic reflector showed better reflection characteristic than other reflectors. The wireless temperature sensing system consisting of SAW temperature sensor with dipole antenna and a microprocessor based control circuit with dipole antenna for transmitting signal to activate the SAW temperature sensor and receiving the signal from SAW temperature sensor was developed. The result with wireless SAW temperature sensing system showed that the frequency of SAW temperature sensor was linearly decreased with the increase of temperature in the range of 40 to 80 degrees C and the developed wireless SAW temperature sensing system showed the excellent performance with the coefficient of determination of 0.99.