The development of a wireless Love wave biosensor on 41° YX LiNbO3

This paper presents a novel wireless Love-wave-based biosensor using a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) waveguide and protein A receptor layers on a 41° YX LiNbO3 piezoelectric substrate for immunoglobulin G (IgG) detection. A 440 MHz reflective delay line composed of single-phase unidirectional transducers (SPUDTs) and three shorted grating reflectors was fabricated as the sensor element. A theoretical modeling was performed to describe the wave propagation of Love wave devices on a 41° YX LiNbO3 piezoelectric substrate with large piezoelectricity. The fabricated devices were wirelessly characterized by using the network analyzer as the reader unit. The resultant reflection peaks showed large signal/noise ratio, sharp peaks, and few spurious signals. The binding of the IgG to the protein A receptor layer induced large phase shifts of the reflection peaks due to the mass loading effect. Good linearity, reproducibility, and high sensitivity were observed in the IgG concentration range 1–65 nM. Unique advantages such as high sensitivity and a simple wireless measurement method over other currently available biosensors are also presented