confirming the piezoelectric model to determine the sensitivity the dispersion curves were computed with and without an additional mass layer the mass sensitivity due to the velocity shift was computed using s m v 1 v o u2062 u2202 v u2202 m 1 where v is the phase velocity v 0 is the phase velocity in the absence of the mass layer with mass m u03c1 m u03b5 m and u03b5 m is the thickness of the mass layer the calculation includes the properties of the mass layer v m 1200 m s u03c1 m 1300 kg m 3 as shown in fig5 the relative error of the optimal thickness h was 10 whereas the relative error of the maximum sensitivity s m was nearly 70 this theoretical sensitivity analysis indicates that isotropic models are insufficient to predict sensitivity for 36 u00b0 yx lto despite that the model predicts the optimal waveguide thickness within 10 of the piezoelectric model this suggests that to determine the mass sensitivity for strongly coupled substrates such as lto piezoelectric models are required since higher operating frequencies require thinner oxide layers the instability and uniformity issues common with thicker oxide layers are reduced as an example of the present invention a spudt was fabricated that enabled high frequency 330 mhz excitation of the sh type wave on lto for array operation the wavelength is of order 10 u03bcm for most materials at an operating frequency of 330 mhz therefore these transducers can be fabricated using standard photolithographic techniques love wave sensors were fabricated using 36 u00b0 yx lto wafers that were 510 u03bcm thick.