• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.160-165
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• 2005

We have developed SH (shear horizontal) surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors for detection of the immobilization and hybridization of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) on the gold coated delay line of transverse SAW devices. The experiments of DNA immobilization and hybridization were performed with 15-mer oligonucleotides (probe and complementary target DNA). The sensor consists of twin SAW delay line oscillators operating at 100 MHz fabricated on $36^{\circ}$ rotated Y-cut $LiTaO_3$ piezoelectric single crystals. The relative change in the frequency of the two oscillators was monitored to detect the hybridization between target DNA and immobilized probe DNA in pH 7.4 PBS (phosphate buffered saline) solution. The measurement results showed a good response of the sensor to the mass loading effects of the DNA immobilization and hybridization with the sensitivity up to $1.55{\cal}ng/{\cal}ml/Hz$.