Patent ID: 7811831

Claim:
A method of detecting a biological material in a vaporous sample, the method comprising: exposing the vaporous sample to a coated surface of a surface acoustic wave resonator, the coated surface including an immobilized antibody that is antigenic to the biological material, wherein the surface acoustic wave resonator is in communication with an oscillator circuit that monitors in real-time, based on time-dependent perturbation theory, a surface acoustic waveform produced by the surface acoustic wave resonator; after exposing the biological material to the coated surface, detecting presence of the biological material in the vaporous sample, detecting the presence of the biological material further including detecting, using the oscillator circuit, a change in a signature of the surface acoustic waveform of the coated material, and comparing this signature-change in the surface acoustic waveform to a reference signature-change indicative of the presence of the biological material.