Field steering of lateral-field excitation

A (conventional) lateral-field excitation (LE) electrode consists of a single pair of segments separated by a narrow gap. The LE resonator parameters are then fixed at values determined by the orientation of the gap. The limitations of fixed field orientation can be overcome by using a Multiple Segmented Lateral-Field Excitation (MuSLE) electrode. This electrode differs from the `conventional´ case in the further segmentation of the driving electrode through the addition of a second gap perpendicular to the first. By so doing, it is possible to add a second component to the driving electric field, thus allowing the field orientation to be adjusted. This `field steering´ enables one to adjust (a) the strengths with which the thickness modes are excited and (b) the LE antiresonance frequencies. These effects provide a post-production means to optimize the performance of an LE resonator. The use of field steering also enables new possibilities in shear wave transducer design