Deposition of thin film using a surface acoustic wave device

When a Rayleigh surface acoustic wave (SAW) propagates at a liquid/solid interface, it radiates its energy into the adjacent liquid. If a liquid droplet is loaded on the SAW propagation surface, droplet vibration, streaming, jetting, and atomization are observed. These phenomena are called SAW streaming. In this paper, a novel thin-film deposition method based on the atomization of SAW streaming phenomena is proposed. The liquid with film material is loaded on the SAW propagation surface and the liquid is atomized. The atomization direction depends on the Rayleigh angle, which is determined by the sound velocity in the liquid and the SAW velocity. For easy fabrication of a thin uniform film, the atomization direction is controlled in the perpendicular direction. Using the developed system, the deposition of pigments in ink is carried out. The results observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) indicate that a pigment layer is formed on a glass plate.