Acceleration sensitivity of surface acoustic wave resonators

Abstract

The acceleration sensitivity of acoustic surface wave resonators (and delay lines) on quartz substrates supported uniformly at the base has been calculated. For normal acceleration the calculated sensitivity is almost two orders of magnitude lower than the lowest published measurements. For in-plane acceleration the calculated sensitivity is comparable to the best published measurements. This causes us to believe that uniform base support has not been realized in practice and, in fact, may be impossible to achieve. For normal acceleration and nonuniform base support the calculations indicate that increasing the thickness of the substrate decreases the acceleration sensitivity. Experimental verification of this is presented. However, for in-plane acceleration the calculations indicate that increasing the thickness of the substrate increases the acceleration sensitivity.