Surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators represent some of the most prominent acoustic devices for chemical sensing applications. As their frequency ranges from several hundred MHz to GHz, therefore they can record remarkably diminutive frequency shifts resulting from exceptionally small mass loadings. Their miniaturized design, high thermal stability and possibility of wireless integration make these devices highly competitive. Owing to these special characteristics, they are widely accepted as smart transducers that can be combined with a variety of recognition layers based on host-guest interactions, metal oxide coatings, carbon nanotubes, graphene sheets, functional polymers and biological receptors. As a result of this, there is a broad spectrum of SAW sensors, i.e., having sensing applications ranging from small gas molecules to large bio-analytes or even whole cell structures. This review shall cover from the fundamentals to modern design developments in SAW devices with respect to interfacial receptor coatings for exemplary sensor applications. The related problems and their possible solutions shall also be covered, with a focus on emerging trends and future opportunities for making SAW as established sensing technology.

Acoustic devices have found wide applications in chemical and biosensing fields owing to their high sensitivity, ruggedness, miniaturized design and integration ability with on-field electronic systems. One of the potential advantages of using these devices are their label-free detection mechanism since mass is the fundamental property of any target analyte which is monitored by these devices. Herein, we provide a concise overview of high frequency acoustic transducers such as quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), surface acoustic wave (SAW) and film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) to compare their working principles, resonance frequencies, selection of piezoelectric materials for their fabrication, temperature-frequency dependency and operation in the liquid phase. The selected sensor applications of these high frequency acoustic transducers are discussed primarily focusing on the two main sensing domains, i.e., biosensing for working in liquids and gas/vapor phase sensing. Furthermore, the sensor performance of high frequency acoustic transducers in selected cases is compared with well-established analytical tools such as liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS), gas chromatographic (GC) analysis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods. Finally, a general comparison of these acoustic devices is conducted to discuss their strengths, limitations, and commercial adaptability thus, to select the most suitable transducer for a particular chemical/biochemical sensing domain.