A Novel Rotation Speed Measurement Method Based on Surface Acoustic Wave

Abstract

This paper presents an original passive wireless rotation speed measurement method based on surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology. A theoretical analysis was conducted on the principle of SAW rotation speed measurement and a numerical analysis on the SAW response energy pulses with different rotation angles and resonance frequencies was performed. Numerical calculation results showed that when the distance and the effective length of the antenna connected to SAWR vary with the rotation angle, the energy of acquired SAW response varies periodically. The rotation speed was estimated by searching the crossing points of the SAW response energy pulses and its mean value line. The SAW rotation speed measurement system was set up and the high performance SAW resonators were fabricated on a quartz substrate. The proposed measurement system was tested with a maximum error of 0.6 rpm, indicating that the system is capable of measuring rotation speeds from 10 to 100 rpm. Experimental results verified the validity and feasibility of presented rotation speed measurement method.