Surface-acoustic-wave oscillator tuned by magnetoelastic effect

A new technique for achieving frequency modulation with a surface-acoustic-wave delay-line oscillator is reported. A 339MHz s.a.w. delay line has been fabricated on an epitaxial garnet film. A significant phase-velocity shift has been measured as a function of an inplane magnetic field. An s.a.w. oscillator has been implemented with this delay line and its frequency has been controlled by the magnetoelastic effect. A frequency shift of 600kHz (a relative variation of 1.75 × 10-3) has been obtained by changing the biasing magnetic field.