Sensors and actuators based on surface acoustic waves propagating along solid–liquid interfaces

The propagation of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) along solid?liquid interfaces depends sensitively on the properties of the liquid covering the solid surface and may result in a momentum transfer into the liquid and thus a propulsion effect via acoustic streaming. This review gives an overview of the design of different SAW devices used for the sensing of liquids and the basic mechanisms of the interaction of SAWs with overlaying liquids. In addition, applications of devices based on these phenomena with respect to touch sensing and the measurement of liquid properties such as density, viscosity or the composition of mixed liquids are described, including microfabricated as well as macroscopic devices made from non-piezoelectric materials. With respect to the rapidly growing field of acoustic streaming applications, recent developments in the movement of nanolitre droplets on a single piezoelectric chip, the rather macroscopic approaches to the acoustic pumping of liquids in channels and recent attempts at numerical simulations of acoustic streaming are reported.