Novel Acoustic Wave Sensing Device using living cells

Acoustic waves are a type of longitudinal waves that propagate by means of adiabatic compression and decompression. Longitudinal waves are waves that have the same direction of vibration as their direction of travel. Important quantities for describing acoustic waves are sound pressure, particle velocity, particle displacement and sound intensity. Acoustic waves travel with the speed of sound which depends on the medium they're passing through. Acoustic waves are longitudinal waves that exhibit phenomena like diffraction, reflection and interference. Sound waves however don't have any polarization since they oscillate along the same direction as they move. Standing wave A standing wave is a special kind of wave that can occur in a resonator. In a resonator superposition of the incident and reflective wave occurs, causing a standing wave. Pressure and particle velocity are 90 degrees out of phase in a standing wave. Measurement Sound pressure can be measured directly using a microphone. Particle velocity can be measured directly using a particle velocity probe. It is also possible to measure the quantities indirectly using the opposite instrument. Sound intensity can be measured using different combinations: Microphone and particle velocity probe (p-u probe) Two microphones (p-p probe) Two particle velocity probes (u-u probe) Transducer A transducer is a device that converts one form of energy to another. Energy types include (but are not limited to) electrical, mechanical, electromagnetic (including light), chemical, acoustic or th ermalenergy. While the term transducer commonly implies the use of a sensor/detector, any device which converts energy can be considered a transducer. Transducers are widely used in measuring instruments. Piezoelectricity Piezoelectricity is the charge that accumulates in certain solid materials (notably crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA and various proteins) in response to applied mechanical stress. The word piezoelectricity means electricity resulting from pressure. It is derived from the Greek piezo or piezein (), which means to squeeze or press, and electric or electron (), which stands for amber, an ancient source of electric charge. Piezoelectricity is the direct result of the piezoelectric effect. The piezoelectric effect is understood as the linear electromechanical interaction between the mechanical and the electrical state in crystalline materials with no inversion symmetry. The piezoelectric effect is a reversible process in that materials exhibiting the direct piezoelectric effect (the internal generation of electrical charge resulting from an applied mechanical force) also exhibit the reverse piezoelectric effect (the internal generation of a mechanical strain resulting

from an applied electrical field). For example, lead zirconate titanate crystals will generate measurable piezoelectricity when their static structure is deformed by about 0.1% of the original dimension. Conversely, those same crystals will change about 0.1% of their static dimension when an external electric field is applied to the material. Chemically, quartz is a compound called silicon dioxide. When a crystal of quartz is properly cut and mounted, it can be made to vibrate, or oscillate, using an alternating electric current; each oscillation, in turn, causes a voltage change across the crystal, which can be detected by a suitable electronic circuit. The frequency at which the crystal oscillates is dependent on its shape and size, and the positions at which electrodes are placed on it. If the crystal is accurately shaped and positioned, it will oscillate at a desired frequency; in clocks and watches, the frequency is usually 32,768 Hz, as a crystal for this frequency is conveniently small, and as this frequency is a power of two and can easily be counted using a 15-bit binary digital counter. Once the circuit supplying power to the crystal counts that this number of oscillations have occurred, it increases the recorded time by one second. This property, of generating an electric current upon the application of mechanical pressure, and vice versa, is known as piezoelectricity (direct and converse). Such crystals were once used in low-end phonograph cartridges: the movement of the stylus (needle) would flex a quartz crystal, which would produce a small voltage, which was amplified and played through speakers. Many materials can be formed into plates that will resonate. However, since quartz can be directly driven (to flex) by an electric signal, no additional speaker or microphone is required. Quartz has the further advantage that its size does not change much as temperature fluctuates. Fused quartz is often used for laboratory equipment that must not change shape along with the temperature, because a quartz plate's resonance frequency, based on its size, will not significantly rise or fall. Similarly, a quartz clock will remain relatively accurate as the temperature changes. Crystal oscillator A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency. This frequency is commonly used to keep track of time (as in quartz wristwatches), to provide a stable clock signal for digital integrated circuits, and to stabilize frequencies for radio transmitters and receivers. The most common type of piezoelectric resonator used is the quartz crystal, so oscillator circuits designed around them became known as "crystal oscillators." Viscoelasticity Viscoelasticity is the property of materials that exhibit both viscous and elastic characteristics when undergoing deformation. Viscous materials, like honey, resist shear flow and strain linearly with time when a stress is applied. Elastic materials strain instantaneously when stretched and just as quickly return to their original state once the stress is removed. Viscoelastic materials have elements of both of these properties and, as such, exhibit time dependent strain. Whereas elasticity is usually the result of bond stretching along crystallographic planes in an ordered solid, viscosity is the result of the diffusion of atoms or molecules inside an amorphous material Elastic behavior versus viscoelastic behavior

Stress-Strain Curves for a purely elastic material (a) and a viscoelastic material (b). The red area is a hysteresis loop and shows the amount of energy lost (as heat) in a loading and unloading cycle. It is equal to , where is stress and is strain.[1]

Unlike purely elastic substances, a viscoelastic substance has an elastic component and a viscous component. The viscosity of a viscoelastic substance gives the substance a strain rate dependent on time.[1] Purely elastic materials do not dissipate energy (heat) when a load is applied, then removed.[1] However, a viscoelastic substance loses energy when a load is applied, then removed. Hysteresis is observed in the stress-strain curve, with the area of the loop being equal to the energy lost during the loading cycle.[1] Since viscosity is the resistance to thermally activated plastic deformation, a viscous material will lose energy through a loading cycle. Plastic deformation results in lost energy, which is uncharacteristic of a purely elastic material's reaction to a loading cycle.[1] Specifically, viscoelasticity is a molecular rearrangement. When a stress is applied to a viscoelastic material such as a polymer, parts of the long polymer chain change position. This movement or rearrangement is called Creep. Polymers remain a solid material even when these parts of their chains are rearranging in order to accompany the stress, and as this occurs, it creates a back stress in the material. When the back stress is the same magnitude as the applied stress, the material no longer creeps. When the original stress is taken away, the accumulated back stresses will cause the polymer to return to its original form. The material creeps, which gives the prefix visco-, and the material fully recovers, which gives the suffix -elasticity.