IEEE TRANSACTlONS ON ULTRASONICS, FERROELECTRICS, AND FREQUENCY CONTROL, VOL. 43, NO.

4, JULY 1996

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Development landApplication of Mass Sensors Based on Flexural Resonances in Alumina Beams

Vittorio Ferrari, Daniele Marioli, Andrea Taroni, Elisabetta Ranucci, and Paolo Ferruti
Abstract- New mass sensors are described, which are based on the change in the flemral resonant frequencies of ceramic cantilever beams subject to piezoellectric excitation. The devices have been fabricated by screen-printing and firing a PZT-based paste on 96% alumina substrates with the methods of thick film technology and are, therefore., low cost and easy to manufacture. Inserted in an ellectronic feedback loop sustaining and tracking oscillations at one of the resonant frequencies, the sensors work as resonant microbalances with frequency output and can be employed foir gravimetric chemical measurements. The beams have been implemented in two different sizes and, as a consequence, operated at different frequencies (about 82 and 149 kHz), in order to vary tlhe mass sensitivity. The sensors, manufacturing andl theory of operation are illustrated, and experimental results on their characterization are reported. For the two sensor sizes, mass sensitivities of about -280 and - 1200 Hdmg have been measured, in agreement with theoretical predictions. The influence of temperature has been investigated showing that, for slow thermal drifts, a satisfying degree of compensation can be achieved with a differential configuration. The devices have been successfully applied as sorption sensors for the measurement of air relative humidity (RH) by sensitizing the beams surface with1 hydrophilic polymeric coatings. On the basis of past investigations, poly(N-vinylpyrrolidinone) and poly(ethyleneglyco1) have been adopted as coating materials, obtaining respective frequency shifts of about 500 and 1400 Hz for RH ranging from 12 to 85%.

I. INTRODUCTION HE modulation exerted by a measurand quantity on the properties of the elastic waves propagating in suitably excited structures represents an exploitable phenomenon for sensing applications. A wide variety of devices rely on this principle [1]-[3], ranging from vibrating mechanical transducers to miniaturized acoustic-wave sensors, snch as bullk acoustic wave (BAW) [4], surface acoustic wave (SAW) [5], and flexural plate wave (FPW) [6] devices. A lot of measurands are covered, e.g., mass, pressure, force, and, depending on fabrication technology, several methods for elastic wave excitation and detection are adopted, the piezoelectric and the electrostatic-capacitive being the more commonly used in small-size low-power sensors.
Manuscript received July 26, 1995; revised November 24, 1995. V. Fenari, D. Marioli, and A. Taroni are with the Department of Electronics for Automation, Faculty of Ehgineeriug, University of Brescia, I 25123 Brescia, Italy (e-mail: ferrari@bsing.ing.unibs.it). E. Ranucci and P. Ferruti are with the Department of Chemistry and Physics for Materials, Faculty of Engineering, University of Brescia, I 25123 Brescia, Italy. Publisher Item Identifier S OSSS-3010(96)04962-3.

Various wave parameters, such as frequency, amplitude, phase, and damping, can be taken as readout quantities for sensing, depending on how the measurand influences them. A straightforward and common situation is that in which the sensor is connected in a closed loop arrangement, which is able to sustain oscillations at one of the resonant frequencies of the electromechanical structure and track its variations caused by the measurand action. Resonant frequencies are related, respectively, to standing waves and correspondent mode shapes in resonators, such as BAW sensors, or to the inverse of the wave propagation time in the delay-line devices, such as SAW and FPW sensors. In both cases, the resulting devices, which are commonly indicated with the term resonant sensors, have their output in the form of frequency, which is a reckoned advantage in terms of obtainable resolution, noise immunity in distance transmission, and interfaceability with digital systems [7]. Furthermore, resonant sensors generally have a high sensitivity dominated by the material parameters of the medium constituting the sensor and are rather unaffected by the performances of the vibration actuators and detectors. Among resonant sensors, mass-sensitive devices in particular have been extensively investigated so far for gravimetric measurements applied to sorption chemical sensing [8]-[ 131. However, the fabrication technologies employed for these devices often require rather elaborate processes, e.g., quartz and silicon micromachining, and are poorly competitive unless high production volumes are involved. On the other hand, the recent availability of screen-printable pastes based on ferroelectric composites [14] has allowed thick film technology (TFT) [15] as well to become a suitable means to implement resonant structures on ceramic substrates relying on the piezoelectric effect [ 161-[ 191. This has opened the way to investigations on new devices which in some applications could hopefully match the attractive features of resonant sensors with the flexibility, low cost, and reduced development time of TFT 1151. This paper describes originally developed gravimetric resonant sensors, consisting of alumina beams in which vibrations at one of the flexural resonances are sustained via the piezoelectric effect. The devices have been tested as microbalances and subsequently applied to the measurement of environmental relative humidity (RH) after sensitizing them with hydrophilic polymeric coatings. Due to reversible water sorption in the coatings, the vibrating beams undergo mass variations causing resonant frequency shifts which are a measure of RH.

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I 1

p m layers

conductors

I I

actuator element

vibration-sensitive element

Fig. 1.

Schematic top (a) and side (b) view of the sensor beam (not to scale)

11. DESIGN
A. Sensors Starting from 96% alumina plane substrates, clamped-free beams of two different sizes, in the following indicated as type A and B, have been obtained by means of laser cutting. The thickness, length, and width are 0.635, 14, and 4 mm for type A beams and 0.38, 11, and 3.4 mm for type B beams, respectively. Beam types A and B represent two subsequent implementations of the same basic idea [20], [21], the second version being inspired by the achievement of a higher mass sensitivity through a reduction in dimensions and the operation at higher frequency (see Section 111). According to the methods of TFT, on one face of the cantilever beams a strain actuator and a vibration sensitive element have been screen-printed and fired, relying, respectively, on the reverse and direct piezoelectric effect of a PZT-based paste ~41. As shown in Fig. 1, the actuator element, located in proximity of the clamped end, is made by a couple of comb-like conductor paths (width and interdistance: 0.3 mm for type A; 0.2 mm for type B) superimposed on a rectangular piezolayer (2.5 x 5 mm for type A; 2 x 3 mm for type B). The vibration sensitive element has been positioned by the beam free end and consists of a sandwich structure in which a 3 x 3 mm piezolayer is enclosed between two conductor plates. This arrangement works as an accelerometer that uses its own inertia for the seismic mass and has the sensitive axis normal to the beam plane. Multiple printing has been adopted for the piezolayers to reach a dry thickness of about 80 pm. After firing, both the elements have been poled at about 5 MV/m at 150C for 30 min to induce piezoelectricity in the PZT. Fig. 2 shows a photograph of a type B sensor fitted in a circular aluminum case with a diameter of 30 mm. The sensor operation can be described as follows. The actuator responds to an applied time-varying voltage by in-

Fig. 2. Photograph of a type B sensor enclosed in an aluminum case 30 mm in diameter. In dark grey the conductor paths and the soldering pads on the lateral supporting area of alumina substrate are distinguishable.

ducing throughout its length an in-phase superficial stress, which generates bending vibrations in the beam that in turn are detected at the free end by the accelerometer. It is worth noting that, although the electrode configuration of the actuator is that of an interdigitated element, its operation is quite different. In fact, since in our case the same electrodes are used both for poling and signal, there is no sign reversal in the generated stress between adjacent fingers and the whole actuator works as a mechanical-series/electrical-parallel planar piezostack. Overall, the sensors can be seen as two-port resonators whose electromechanical transfer function TEMis expected to exhibit resonances at the frequencies corresponding to flexural standing waves in the beams. Since the input and output voltages are proportional to driving force and beam acceleration, respectively, a 90 phase shift is expected at resonance.

B. Electronics
Fig. 3 shows the block diagram of the electronic oscillator which has been designed and used for the sensors closed loop operation. It consists of a high gain loop in which the resonator is inserted as the feedback element governing the oscillation frequency. The sensor input and output ports are modeled, respectively, as a parallel RC network and as a voltage-controlled charge source with an internal impedance essentially given by the accelerometer capacitance CO (in the order of few hundred repicofarads). The electromechanical transfer function TEM lates the output charge QS to the driving voltage v,. To maximize readout efficiency reducing the effect of electrical crosstalk between input and output ports (see Section IV-A), a differential amplifier has been used to interface with the accelerometer.

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S Et NSOR

adjustable phase-shifter

the general case, mutually interact, causing frequency shifts whose determination requires approximated methods or finite element analysis. On the contrary, limiting to the case of a mass variation uniformly distributed over the entire beam surface, the problem can be analytically solved. Differentiating (1) keeping L constant, the following is obtained: dfi - I d ( E I ) 1 dm -(2) fi 2 EI 2 m' The first term in (2) accounts for the variation in the beam elastic reaction and, from the theory of composite beams [23], results in being uninfluential if either the thickness or the Young's modulus of the added layer are negligible compared to those of the beam. In this case, in (2), only the second term containing the variation in mass plays a role, regardless of the nature of the added layer and, as a result, the structure behaves like a mass-sensitive balance. The above assumptions properly apply when weighting soft and thin layers and, even more, when the device is operated as a sorption sensor, being the analyte interaction with the sensitive coating essentially limited to a change in the composite beam density. For small values of mass load (few percent of m), (1) can be linearized and differentials can be substituted by finite increments in (2), yielding to a mass sensitivity coefficient Smi given by

Fig. 3. Block diagram of the electronic oscillator built around the sensors for closed loop operation.

An adjustable phase shifter has been included to trim the overall loop phase at null in correspondence of a frequency selected among the sensor resonances. If the loop gain is larger than unity, this condition is sufficient to maintain oscillations and, provided that the frequency dependence of the phase shift around the loop is dominated by the resonator, the oscillator is able to track the vaniations of the sensor resonance with negligible errors. No gain control circuitry has been included, thus oscillation amplitude has been limited by saturation in the driver stage. 111. SEIWTIVITY ANALYSIS

Smi is independent from beam thickness, inversely related to the beam length L and width w, and increases with mode From the equation of propagation of flexural waves in number i. The fractional mass sensitivity ,s can be defined uniform bars with the application of the proper boundary as follows: conditions, the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of clamped-free 1 Afi 1 uniform rectangular beams can be analytically obtained [22]. - -Sm=-(4) f i Am 2m' In our case, despite the thick films on the alumina substrate, the beams can be considereid uniform with good approximation, s , is only dependent on the beam mass and is a figure of simplifying the analysis with nlzgligible influences on the merit of the sensor as a microbalance. results. The sensors have been applied to air humidity sensing after The well-known expression relating the flexural resonant coating one face of the beam with hydrophilic polymers (see frequencies fi to the dimensional and material parameter of a Section IV-D). Indicating with Am, the mass of the dry cantilever beam is the following [22]: polymer and with a(RH) its fractional variation versus relative
humidity, the following can be derived for Afi as a function of RH: where L , E , p , and m arle the beaim length, Young's modulus, density, and mass, respectively, K and I are the radius of gyration, and the moment of ineflia of the section and at are numerical coefficients depending on mode number i. For the 1, first four modes it holds a1 = 0.559 66, a2 = 6 . 2 6 7 ~ ~a3 = 17.548a1, a 4 = 34.387~~1. The deposition of additional material on the beam surface affects the resonant frequencies i n a way which in principle depends on both the superficial mass distribution of the loading material and on its bending rigidity E I compared to that of the beam constituent. These two contributions alter the kinetic and the potential energy of vibration, respectively, and, in Afi(RH) = S,iAm,a(RH).

(5)

Iv. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A . Sensors' Basic Operation
Prior to being connected in their respective oscillator circuits, the sensors have been tested in open loop condition with an HP 4194 gain-phase analyzer, in order to evaluate their transfer function. The results are shown in Figs. 4 and 5 for sensor type A and B, respectively. The resonances are in good agreement with the values that can be calculated using for the alumina E = 33.1010N/m2 and p = 3.7.103kg/m3 and

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- -1000
z -2000 ! G 5 -3000

g F 2 3
1

-4000
-5000

-6000
-7000

I
0

-1 175 Hdmg

4 mass load [mg]

6 7 8 9 1

A/DIV

B/OIV

1.000

10.00

START deg STOP

100 000.000

1 000.000 H z

Fig. 6. Resonant frequency shift versus uniformly distributed loading mass for the two sensor types differing for the size (see text).

Hz

Fig. 4. Measured transfer function of a type A sensor. A 40-dB amplification factor is included.
A: T/'9 <dB>B :

resonators has been determined, according to the following:

A MAX -20. 00

dB

MKR GAIN

149 442. 2 3 2 Hz

-27.3456

dB

M I N -90. 00 B MIN -180. 0

A

dB
deg

START

STOP

1 000.000 200 O C O . 0 0 0

Yz

Hz

resulting in Q 3 and Q4 of about 150 and 100, for sensor type A and B, respectively. Thereafter, the sensors have been connected in the closedloop oscillators trimmed to work at f 3 and f 4 , for sensor type A and B, respectively. The output frequency has been measured with a Philips PM 6680 frequency counter with 1-s gate time, evidencing a short-term stability better than one part in 10' in steady conditions. The standard deviation over 100 repeated measurements resulted in about 100 mHz and 200 mHz for sensor type A and B, respectively. On a longer time scale, thermal fluctuations have been shown to play a role.
B. Mass Sensitivity

Fig. 5. Measured transfer function of a type B sensor. A 40-dB amplification factor is included.

assuming for the thick films an approximate mass of 10 mg. No contribution to resonances is due to either the actuator or the accelerometer, since both have been found to resonate in the megahertz range. The relative amplitudes of peaks are related to the excitation and detection efficiency of the associated mode shapes, included the intrinsic f 2 amplification factor due to the acceleration readout. The third and fourth resonance for sensor type A and B, respectively (about 82 and 149 kHz), have been chosen for the closed loop operation, though type A has a neater behavior, while type B shows a tendency to multiple peaking, most likely due to adjacent modes. A point that is worth noting is the presence of antiresonance peaks coupled to resonances in the transfer functions. As confirmed by its absence in the case of acoustical excitation, this phenomenon can be attributed to capacitive crosstalk between the sensor input and output ports [24]. This parasitic effect is lower the higher the signal through the mechanical path compared to the electrical one, and can be minimized with a differential readout at the output that reduces the unbalance in the coupling (see Section 11-B). From the slope of the phase shift @ versus frequency around the respective resonances fi the quality factor Q of the two

The experimental evaluation of the mass sensitivity has been carried out by loading one face of the beams with accurately known masses and measuring the corresponding frequency shifts at the oscillators' output. Silicone grease has been adopted as the loading material and deposited by uniformly casting an ether solution of known concentration on both the sensors using a micropipette. The resulting values are plotted in Fig. 6 showing a behavior which is linear within the experimental errors, with a slope of about -280 and -1200 Hz/mg for sensor type A and B, respectively. The sensitivities are in good agreement with those calculated by estimating the unloaded beam mass from the slope A f /Am, and comparing the unloaded beam frequency to that obtainable from (1). No significant degradation in the frequency stability has been observed with respect to the unloaded condition. Therefore, given the above data, a nominal resolution of 0.36 and 0.17 pg over 100 averaged measurements can be quoted for sensor type A and B, respectively.

C. Temperature Injluence
Temperature affects the resonant frequencies of a structure changing both its dimensions and its Young's modulus. In the case of a resonant sensor, the resultant effect is a moderate relative change in frequency but, since the variations caused

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152200 I - 152000
T.7

&

P
sensor #I

active resonator

]Best-fit line slope: 39.7 Hz/"C 151 000 30 35 40 temperature ["Cl

(a)

45

50

147600

7 P sensor #2

Fig. 8. Block diagram of a differential configuration in which an active and a reference sensor are coupled to cancel common mode thermal effects.

1-7I 1 mixer

filter

reference resonator

?
3
c

147400 147200 147000

D. Application to RH Measurements RH measurements have been performed making use of polymeric coatings containing, in their structure, organic functions capable of interacting with water molecules and whose water sorption varies with moisture content. Poly(Nvinylpyrrolidinone) (PVP) and poly(ethyleneglyco1) (PEG) had been previously studied in detail [26]-[28]. These polymers are both nonionic amphiphilic materials which interact with water by forming hydrogen bonds involving the amidic and ether groups contained, respectively, in their repeating units [29], [30]. More precisely, high molecular weight PVP and PEG with molecular weight 750 have been selected for this work, being both amorphous and permeable materials. The lack of crystallinity is, in fact, an essential requirement for use as sensor coating, being crystals not permeable to gas molecules. The glass transition temperatures Tq of PVP and PEG are 171 and -67"C, respectively, which means that at room temperature and under dry conditions PVP is brittle and glassy, while PEG exhibits a viscoelastic behavior. This could, in principle, bias the applicability of PVP films, since glassy materials are known to frequently give problems of slow absorption and not complete desorption of permeants 1311. In practice, water molecules act as plasticizers for PVP, and since Tg decreases linearly with the concentration of plasticizer, its value rapidly approaches room temperature even at moderate sorption levels. This explains the good behavior of PVP as an RH detector [26], [27]. To sensitize the sensors toward RH, their unprinted surface has been covered with the hydrophilic polymer, while the opposite face has been protected with a thin silicone layer to prevent unpredictable humidity sorption, as schematized in Fig. 9. The coating deposition has been performed by casting with a calibrated micropipette, starting from methanol and water solutions for PVP and PEG, respectively. Given the solution concentration, through the control of the deposited volume it has been possible to establish the polymer quantity and, assuming unity density and knowing the beam area, to estimate the average thickness. RH reference points have been obtained using saturated solutions of inorganic salts [20] prepared in glass flasks in which the sensors have been inserted in cyclic experiments at
25OC.

2 .

p 146800
146600 146400

Best-fit line slope: 39.9 HU'C

30

35

40 tempeiature ["C]

45

50

Fig. 7. Resonant frequency versus temperature for a couple of type B sensors L(a) and (b), respectively] exposed to a 3.:iC/h thermal drift.

by the measurand are themselves a small fraction of the unperturbed frequency, the overall influence turns out to be generally significant. This aspect has been experimentally investigated running tests on a couple of type B sensors stacked together and put in a thermal chamber in which temperature has been varied slowly (about 3.3"C/h) in the range 30-50C. The electronics has been kept at room i.emperature. The results are reported in Fig. 7(a) and (b), which shows a slope of about -40 Hz/"C for both the sensors. This temperature sensitivity is reasonably consistent with that estimated, assuming for 96% allumina a linear thermal expansion coefficient and a temperature coefficient of Young's modulus of 6.5 . 10P6/"C and 2 . 10P4/"C, respectively [25]. The equality in the temperature sensitivities between the two resonators suggests the use of a differential configuration for thermal compensation, in which the active resonator is accompanied by a reference one and the difference in the resonant frequencies is taiken as the output signal, as shown in the block diagram of Fig. 8. However, the effectiveness of this approach is critically deplendent on both the sensors tracking with temperature very closely, which, as experimentally confirmed by running tests with faster temperature variations, is not guaranteed to occur except in extremely slowly varying conditions. A possible solution to this problem could be that of increasing the thermal coupling between the two sensors, implementing them on the same alumina substrate. Alternatively, a temperature sensor screen-printed ton the beam itself could be used, together with an electronic compensation procedure.

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1800
3 1500 ..

ilicone coating

g 1200 -5
a C
x

900 ..
600 .. 300 ..

2
1000 1
Ti

0 4.
RH ["A]
I

800

Fig. 11. Frequency shift changed of sign versus relative humidity for a type B sensor coated with a 13-pm-thick PEG film.

01 0

1
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

RH[%]
Fig. 10. Frequency shift changed of sign versus relative humidity for a type A sensor coated with PVP films with a thickness of 9 p m (a); 18 p m (b); and 33 p m (c).

therefore there has been no evidence of any significant improvement given by the intended thermal compensation. The motivations of this result are not clearly understood at present, and further work is needed to ascertain whether the response of the differential configuration is dominated by the effectiveness of the thermal coupling between the two sensors or by the intrinsic behavior of the polymer. As for the PVP, the response time to step-changing RH has been found to be on the order of 10 min.

V. CONCLUSIONS
As a first step, PVP deposited on a type A sensor has been tested from 12 to 85% RH and the results are reported in Fig. 10 for three different polymer thicknesses, namely 9, 18, and 33 pm. The data are average values of readings taken over repeated sorption-desorption cycles and are referred to the resonant frequency in dry conditions. The dispersion of readings around the plotted values is f 3 0 Hz, including nonrepeatability and time fluctuations at a given RH most likely dominated by temperature effects. As expected according to (3, highest frequency shift, about 500 Hz, has occurred the for the thickest coating which, as a drawback, has shown the longest response time to step-changing RH (on the order of 10 min). Given (3) and the experimental results reported in Fig. 7, the nonlinear behavior, which has been interpolated with an exponential, is to be attributed to the polymer fractional sorption function a(RH). With the aim of achieving an increase in the RH sensitivity, a second set of measurements has been performed on a type B sensor coated with a 13-pm-thick PEG film and the results are shown in Fig. 11. In this case, a second sensor coupled to the active one has been used as a reference, according to the arrangement of Fig. 8, in order to improve thermal compensation. The plotted data represent therefore the frequency difference between the active and dummy sensor, once again referred to the dry condition value. Compared to the case of PVP on a type A sensor, a marked increase in the sensitivity is seen, as expected, causing a frequency shift of about 1400 Hz, again accompanied by nonlinear behavior due to the function a(RH) of PEG. The dispersion of the data around their average values has shown comparable results with those found for the PVP, New mass sensors based on the variation of the flexural resonances in alumina cantilever beams subject to piezoelectric excitation have been presented. The devices work as resonant microbalances with frequency output and have been successfully applied to the measurement of environmental RH through the use of hydrophilic polymeric coatings. The key feature of these sensors lays in the use of thick film as a low cost and versatile technology for implementing gravimetric resonant structures on a miniaturized scale with an exploitable sensitivity for sensing purposes. This represents an innovative contribution and a demonstration of feasibility, opening the way to investigations on new devices and applications. In particular, provided that a sensitive and selective coating is employed, the presented principle may be applied to the measurement of gases. Though the mass sensitivity of the presented devices is markedly lower than those obtainable with other acoustic wave sensors, such as BAW, SAW, and FPW [32], it is thought to represent an interesting solution, especially where extremely low detection limits are not an issue. Furthermore, it has to be taken into account that the comparatively high mass load that these structures can withstand without oscillations being damped out allows the use of thicker coatings. While this is likely to worsen the response time of the device as a sensor, it suggests the possible use of such structures as instruments to investigate the properties of layered materials and their interactions with the surrounding environment. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors are very grateful to Prof. B. Morten and Prof. M. Prudenziati of the University of Modena, Italy, for

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providing the ferroelectric paste. The support in the thick film manufacturing given by Dr. D. Crescini and D. Febbrari is also acknowledged.

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7, H. H. Bau, N. F. de Rooii, and B. Kloeck, Eds. Weinheim: VCH. 1994, pp. 208-279. review, J. Phys. E: Sei. 121 R. M. Langdon, Resonator sensors-A Instrum., vol. 18, pp. 103-115, 1985. [3] P. Hauptmann, Resonant sensors and applications, Sensors Actuator~s A, vol. 25-27, pp. 371-377, 1991. [4] E. P. Eemisse, R. W. Ward, and R. B. Wiggins, Survey of quartz bulk resonator sensor technologies, IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr., vol. 35, pp. 323-330, 1988. 151 J. F. Dias, Physical sensors using SAW devices, Hewlett-Packard J.. .. vol. 32, pp. 18-20, 1981. 161 . . R. M. White, P. J. Wicher. S. W. Wenzel. and E. D. Zellers. Plate-mode ultrasonic oscillator sensors, IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr., vol. UFFC-34, pp. 162-171, 1987. [7] S. Middelhoek, P. J. French, J.H. Huijsing, and W. J. Lian, Sensors with digital or frequency output, Sensors Actuators, ,vol. 15, pp. 119-133, 1988. [SI M. S. Nieuwenhuizen and A. Venema, Mass-sensitive devices, in Sensor~s,Chemical and Biochemical Sensors, Purr I, vol. 2, W. Gopel, J. Hesse, and J. N. Zemel, Eds. Weinheim: VCH, 1991, pp. 647-680. [9] W. H. King, Piezoelectric sorption detector, Anal. Chem., vol 36, pp. __ 1735-1739, 1964. 1101 . . R. T. Howe and R. S. Muller, Resonant-microbridee vauor sensor. IEEE Truns. Electron Devices, vol. ED-33, pp. 499-506, 1986. [1 I] M. S. Nieuwenhuizen and A. Venema, Sourface acoustic wave chemical conditioning electronics, sensors, Sensors Materials, vol. 5 , pp. 261-300, 1989. current interests include [12] S. W. Wenzel and R. M. White, Flexural plate-wave gratimetric chemical sensing. chemical sensors, Sensors Actuators A, vol. 21-23, pp. 700-703, 1990. 1131 T. Giesler and J. U. Meyer, Electrostatically excited and capacitively detected flexural plate waves on thin silicon nitiride membranes with chemical sensor application, Sensors Actuators B, vol. 18-19, pp. 103-106, 1994. [14] B. Morten, G. De Cicco, A. Gandolfi, and C. Tonelli, PZT-based thick films and the development of a piezoelctric pressure sensor, Hybrid Circuits, no. 28, pp. 25-28, 1992. [15] M. Prudenziati and B. Morten, The state of the art in thick-film sensors, Microelectron. J., vol. 23, pp. 133-141, 1992. [I61 B. Morten, G. De Cicco, and M. Prudenziati, Resonant pressure sensor based on piezoelectric properties of ferroelectric thick films, Sensors Actuutors A, vol. 31, pp. 153-158, 1991. A thick-film resonant sensor based for humidity measure[I71 -, ments, Sensors Actuators A, vol. 37-38, p. 337, 1993. 1181 G. De Cicco, B. Morten, and M. Prudenziati, Piezoelectric thickfilm sensors, in Thick Film Sensors, M. Prudenziati, Ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1994, p. 209. (191 N. M. White and V . T. K. KO, Thick-film acoustic wave sensor structure, Electron. Lett., vol. 29, pp. 1807-1808, 1993. [20] V. Ferrari, D. Marioli, A. Taroni, E. Ranucci, and P. Ferruti, Thickfilm cantilever type resonant sensor for relative humidity, in Proc. XZII IMEKO Con$, Turin, 5-9 Sept. 1994, pp. 2098-2103. [21] ~, A thick-film gravimetric resonant sensor for relative humidity, in Proc 10th Eur. Microelectron. Con$ (ISHM), Copenhagen, 14-17 May 1995, pp. 362-367. [22] P. M. Morse, Vihrution and Sound. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1948. [23] W. C. Young, Roarks Formulas for Stress and Strain. Nevi York: McGraw-Hill, 1989. [24] C. J. van Mullem, H. A. C. Tilmans, A. J. Mouthaan, and JI. H. J. Fluitman. Electrical cross-talk in two-uort resonators-The rNesonant silicon beam force sensor, Sensors Actuutors A, vol. 31, pp. 168-173, 1992. J. A. King, Ed., Materials Handbook for Hybrid Microelectronics. Norwood: Artech House, 1988. E. Ranucci, P. Ferruti, V. Ferrdn, D. Marioli, and A. Taroni, Poly(N-vinylpyrrolidinoue), poly(N-viuylcaprolactame) and ( A viuylpyrro1idinone)-co-(X-ninylcapro1actame)s as moisture-absorbing materials for relative humidity sensors, Chimica e Industria, vol. 74, pp. 667-670, 1992. 1271 E. Ranucci, P. Opelli, P. Ferruti, V. Ferrari, D. Marioli, and A. Taroni, Poly(A-vinylpyrrolidinone) as moisture-sorbing material for relative humidity sensors, Sensors Materials, vol. 5, pp. 221-229, 1994.

[28] -, Poly(ethyleneglyco1)s-based hydrogels as coatings for relative humidity sensors, Polymer Gels Networks, vol. 2, pp. 119-123, 1994. [29] P. Molyneux, The physical chemistry and pharmaceutical applications of polyvinylpyrrolidone, in Proc. Int. Symp. Povidone, Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, Apr. 17-20, 1983, pp. 1-19. [30] J. M. Harris, Polyethyleneglycols, J. Mucromol. Sei. Rev. Macromol. Chem., vol. 25, p. 325, 1985. [31] J. L. Frish, Sorption and transport in glassy polymers, Polym. Eng. Sci., vol. 20, p. 2, 1980. [32] S. W. Wenzel and R. M. White, Analytic comparison of the sensitivities of bulk-wave, surface-wave, and flexural plate-wave ultrasonic gravimetric sensors, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 54, pp. 1976-1978, 1989.

Vittorio Ferrari was born in Milan, Italy, in 1962. In 1988 he graduated from the University of Milan with a degree in physics. He spent 1989 in fellowship activity at the University of Pavia. In 1993 he received the Research Doctorate degree in electronic instrumentation from the University of Brescia. Since 1993 he has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics for Automation of the University of Brescia. His research activity involves the design of sensors and the related signal in particular, employing thick film technology. His thick film acoustic wave devices for physical and

Daniele Marioli was born in Brescia, Italy, in 1946. He obtained the degree in electrical engineering in 1969. From 1984 to 1989 he was an Associate Professor in Applied Electronics and since 1989 he has been a full Professor of Electric and Electronic Measurements at the University of Brescia. His main field of activity is the design and experimentation of analog electronic circuits for the processing of electrical signals from transducers, with particular regard to S N ratio optimization.

Andrea Taroni was born in 1942. He received the degree in physical science from the University of Bologna, Italy, in 1966. He was an Associate Professor at the University of Modena from 1971 to 1986. Since 1986 he has been a full Professor of Electrical Measurements at the University of Brescia. He has done extensive research in the field of physical quantities sensors and electronic instrumentation, both developing original devices and practical applications. He is the author of more than 100 scientific papers.

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Elisabetta Ranucci was born in Pisa, Italy, in 1958. She received the Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Pisa in 1983. She spent three years of postdoctoral fellowship between the Universities of Pisa and Erescia. Since 1986, she has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Brescia in the Department of Chemistry and Physics for Materials. Her main fields of research are the synthesis and characterization of multifunctional polymers for various applications. She is the co-author of 50 papers in international journals.

Paolo Ferruti was born in Milan, Italy, in 1938. He graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1961, from the University of Pavia, Collegio Borromeo. He went to the Polytechnic of Milan, summoned by Prof. G. Natta, where he became an Assistant Professor of Industrial Chemistry in 1965, and an Associate Professor of Macromolecular Chemistry in 1970. In 1975, he was appointed a full Professor of Industrial Chemistry at the University of Naples, where he remained until 1980, when he moved with the same qualifications to the University of Bologna. Since 1983 he has been a full Professor of Applied Chemistry on the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Brescia. His main scientific interest lies in synthesis and applications of multifunctional polymers. He has authored or co-authored more than 180 papers in international journals and books.