Integrated Sensing and Actuation Capabilities of Flexible Surface Acoustic Wave Devices with Metallic and Polymer Layers

Flexible and bendable devices have become the key elements in the development of next-generation point-of-care systems and wearable technologies. In this paper, we report flexible surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices that are composed of a multilayer substrate; SAW devices are basically made of interdigital transducers (IDTs) that are patterned on a piezoelectric layer. In our fabricated devices, thin film of zinc oxide (ZnO), as the piezoelectric layer, is deposited on substrates made of trilayer of thin metal films (Nickel/Copper/Nickel) on top of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) layer. We have characterized the devices in radio frequencies, and we have measured the response of the device to the temperature and the Ultraviolet (UV) light. Also, we have tested the actuation capability of our fabricated devices. We have successfully demonstrated that our fabricated devices can be employed as an integrated platform for sensing and actuation purposes using a single structure.