This paper presents a comparative study of three types of surface acoustic waves sensors used for particulate matter detection along with a theoretical study tackling the possibility to switch to innovative materials called Piezoelectric-on-Insulator. These sensors are placed in a cascade impactor as impaction plates. Monitoring their phase variation allows us to measure the quantity of fine particles present in the air with high accuracy. Until now, the sensors used in our prototype are built on quartz substrate and present a sufficient sensitivity to fine particles. One major concern in our application is the fouling of the sensor’s surface with particles upon long periods of exposure. This shaped our drive to develop a self-cleaning sensor relying on other substrates with stronger electromechanical coupling coefficient (k²) [1] . Hence, the aim of this study is to demonstrate the possibility of using strongly coupled modes on different piezoelectric substrates for an accurate PM detection. Among these, different POI substrates are considered to assess their physical and acoustic properties, especially in terms of k² and thermal stability, for further optimization enabling their exploitation in the self-cleaning system that is being developed.

Particulate matter (PM) is reported to be dangerous and can cause respiratory and health issues. Regulations, based on PM concentration, have been implemented to limit human exposition to air pollution. An innovative system with surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors combined with a 3 Lpm cascade impactor was developed by our team for real time mass concentration measurements. In this study, we compare the PM sensitivity of two types of SAW sensors. The first one consists of delay lines based on Rayleigh waves propagating on a Lithium Niobate Y-X 128° substrate. The second one is a based-on Love waves on AT-Quartz. Aerosols were generated from NaCl for PM2.5 and from Silicon carbide for PM10. The sensors’ responses was compared to a reference sensor based on optical measurements. The sensitivity of the Rayleigh wave-based sensor is clearly lower than the Love wave sensor for both PMs. Although less sensitive, Rayleigh wave sensors remain very promising for the development of self-cleaning sensors using RF power due to their high electromechanical factor. To check the performance of our system in real conditions, we tested the sensitivity to PM from cigarette smoke using Rayleigh SAW. The PM2.5 stage showed a phase shift while the PM10 did not respond. This result agrees with previous studies which reported that the size of particles from cigarette smoke varies between 0.1 to 1.5 µm. A good correlation between the reference sensor’s response and the phase variation of SAW sensors was obtained.

A cascade impactor coupled with Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) sensors was developed in our laboratory to detect Particulate Matters with an aerodynamic diameter of less or equal to 2.5 and 10 µm (PM2.5 and PM10). To improve the collection of PM10, a layer was added to the SAW sensors, which was later on tested to check its effectiveness. These tests were carried out using polystyrene (PS) and silicon carbide (SiC) particles in order to have a representative sample of sizes. Results analysis was conducted quantitatively using a digital microscope.