Innovative surface acoustic wave sensor for accurate measurement of subatmospheric pressure

An original application for surface acoustic wave (SAW) subatmospheric pressure sensor was developed to measure pressure below 100mTorr with very high precision. The basic operating principles and the most significant experimental results of the sensor are presented here. A simple theoretical model is proposed. This sensor provides an efficient measuring solution in a wide range of subatmospheric pressure, which has been inaccessible in past by conventional diaphragm-based SAW sensors.