An analysis of solitons in surface acoustic wave devices

Abstract

Recently, in the area of mathematical physics, there has been a growing interest in nonlinear, dispersive systems, and particularly in solitons, a type of wave which exists as a balance between the nonlinearity and the dispersion. There are two basic types of solitons, one of which is a baseband, pulse-like signal, and the other consisting of a rf pulse in which the envelope exhibits soliton behavior. In both cases the soliton behavior is characterized by the stable propagation of the signal in the presence of nonlinearity and dispersion. All surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices exhibit dispersion and nonlinearity to varying degrees. The purpose of this paper is to relate the rapidly growing developments in soliton theory to the SAW device field. Computer simulations of a phenomenological model identify various parameters which characterize the development of an initial condition into solitons. A number of SAW device configurations are evaluated in the context of the phenomenological model for the possibility of soliton propagation.