A surface acoustic wave impedance-loaded high sensitivity sensor with wide dynamic range for ultraviolet light detection

[Display omitted] •A new design of the SAW UV is proposed, in which the sensitive element is located outside the acoustic channel and does not affect the propagation of SAW, which makes it possible to use such a sensor wireless in the frequency range 2400–2483 MHz, where wireless sensors have compact antennas.•It It is proposed to connect the impedance sensitive to UV radiation not to reflective, but to the transceiver IDT, which made it possible to increase the sensitivity of the sensor to 8000 ppm/(μW/cm2).•New sensor design allowed us to obtain 8000 ppm/μW cm2 sensitivity, measure UV radiation intensity from some units μW/cm2 to 4 mW/cm2 and to reduce the response time.•The theoretical and experimental studies of reflection coefficient UV dependence can also be used for the development of passive wireless UV radiation sensors. An investigation of impedance-loaded surface acoustic waves (SAW) UV sensor is presented in this paper. New sensor design allowed us to obtain 8000 ppm/μW·cm2 sensitivity, measure UV radiation intensity from some units μW/cm2 to 4 mW/cm2 and to reduce the response time. The photosensitive film is located outside the acoustic channel in our design of the sensor, which makes it possible to avoids SAW damping by the surface of the film. The theoretical and experimental studies of reflection coefficient UV dependence can also be used for the development of passive wireless UV radiation sensors.