interdigital transducer

These are made of a piezoelectric substrate with metallic structures (interdigital transducers, reflection coupler gratings) on the plain-polished surface.

An electric input signal fed to an interdigital transducer (IDT) is transformed by the piezoelectric effect into a microacoustic wave propagating on the surface of the SAW device.

An interdigital transducer (IDT), or interdigitated transducer, is a device which consists of two interlocking comb-shaped metallic coatings (in the fashion of a zipper) which are applied to a piezoelectric substrate, such as quartz or lithium niobate.

Electronic devices employing SAWs normally use one or more interdigital transducers (IDTs) to convert acoustic waves to electrical signals and vice versa by exploiting the piezoelectric effect of certain materials (quartz, lithium niobate, lithium tantalate, lanthanum gallium silicate, etc.).