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Acoustic Sensors

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Acoustic Sensors for Biomedical Applications

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Speech Technology ((BRIEFSSPEECHTECH))

Abstract

An acoustic wave biosensor employs mechanical or acoustic waves as a detection instrument to attain biochemical, biophysical, and medical information. It senses changes in elasticity, mass, dielectric properties, and conductivity from the electrical or mechanical variations. At an input transducer, the piezoelectric effect is employed in these devices to stimulate the acoustic waves electrically and to obtain the waves at the output transducer. Acoustic biosensors are implemented with robust piezoelectric crystals such as lithium tantalite, lithium niobate, or quartz that can detect various biomolecules. Sound waves are generated by different compression and expansion of the medium at specific frequencies. For auscultation and listening to body sounds, the stethoscope instrument is used to hear the sounds produced from the heart, intestinal tract, lungs, stomach, the blood flow in the exterior vessels, venous, arterial, uterine, and the sound of human’s/animal fetuses. Acoustic wave sensors are convenient in several applications as predominantly mass sensitive devices capable of the respond to small environmental perturbations. New surface acoustic wave devices using different materials for chemical and biological sensing are developed. The improvement of a broad sensor system for biomarker and chemical sensing attracts several researchers. This chapter introduces in details the piezoelectricity effect as well as the acoustic sensor design and the acoustic stethoscope. Finally, the acoustic wave sensors including the bulk acoustic wave sensors, the surface acoustic wave sensors, and the acoustic wave propagation modes are introduced.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Technology, Techno India College of Technology, Kolkata, India

    Nilanjan Dey

  2. Department of Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    Amira S. Ashour

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    Waleed S. Mohamed

  4. Graduate School, Duy Tan University, Da Nang City, Vietnam

    Nhu Gia Nguyen

Authors
  1. Nilanjan Dey
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  2. Amira S. Ashour
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  3. Waleed S. Mohamed
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  4. Nhu Gia Nguyen
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Dey, N., Ashour, A.S., Mohamed, W.S., Nguyen, N.G. (2019). Acoustic Sensors. In: Acoustic Sensors for Biomedical Applications. SpringerBriefs in Speech Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92225-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92225-6_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-92224-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-92225-6

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