Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Impedance Analysis Based on Virtual Instruments: Experimental Study

Burda, Ioan

doi:10.3390/s22041506

Cited by 16 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The most important criteria for a virtual instrument, used in monitoring a QCM sensor’s impedance, are the lowest possible power consumption and the smallest possible physical size. The extensive presentation of VIA used in the experimental setup and the standard compensation concepts [ 21 , 28 , 29 , 30 ] are available in the literature.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advanced Impedance Spectroscopy for QCM Sensor in Liquid Medium

Burda

2022

Sensors

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Technological evolution has allowed impedance analysis to become a versatile and efficient method for the precise measurement of the equivalent electrical parameters of the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). By measuring the dissipation factor, or another equivalent electrical parameter, the QCM sensor provides access to the sample mass per unit area and its physical parameters, thus ensuring a detailed analysis. This paper aims to demonstrate the benefits of advanced impedance spectroscopy concerning the Butterworth–van Dyke (BVD) model for QCM sensors immersed with an electrode in a liquid medium. The support instrument in this study is a fast and accurate software-defined virtual impedance analyzer (VIA) with real-time computing capabilities of the QCM sensor’s electric model. Advanced software methods of self-calibration, real-time compensation, innovative post-compensation, and simultaneous calculation by several methods are the experimental resources of the results presented in this paper. The experimental results validate the theoretical concepts and demonstrate both the capabilities of VIA as an instrument and the significant improvements brought by the advanced software methods of impedance spectroscopy analysis related to the BVD model.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the recent concept in instrumentation, a fast and accurate virtual impedance analyzer (VIA) was developed [ 21 ]. Today we can consider that a modern VIA must ensure the real-time calculation of the equivalent electrical parameters for the QCM sensor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced Impedance Spectroscopy for QCM Sensor in Liquid Medium

Burda

2022

Sensors

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“…The Analog Discovery 2 (AD2) virtual instrument from Digilent Inc., Pullman, WA, USA [27] has been successfully used in various applications [28][29][30]. The WaveForms device manager provides alternate FPGA configuration files with different resource allocations.…”

Section: Regenerative Ring-down Qcmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The BVD parameters for polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coated QCM sensor was obtained using a virtual impedance analyzer (VIA) already presented in the literature [28,30]. In Figure 5a, the VIA results for the QCM sensor are shown.…”

Section: Natural Ring-down Of the Qcm Sensormentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study on Regenerative Quartz Crystal Microbalance

Burda

2022

Chemosensors

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The quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) represented a substantial breakthrough in the use of the QCM sensor in diverse applications ranging from environmental monitoring to biomedical diagnostics. To obtain the required selectivity and sensitivity of a volatile organic compounds (VOC) sensor, it is necessary to coat the QCM sensor with a sensing film. As the QCM sensor is coated with the sensing film, an increase in the dissipation factor occurs, resulting in a shorter and shorter ring-down time. This decrease in ring-down time makes it difficult to implement the QCM-D method in an economical and portable configuration from the perspective of large-scale applications. To compensate for this effect, a regenerative method is proposed by which the damping effect produced by the sensing film is eliminated. In this sense, a regenerative circuit as an extension to a virtual instrument is proposed to validate the experimental method. The simulation of the ring-down time for the QCM sensor in the air considering the effect of the added sensing film, followed by the basic theoretical concepts of the regenerative method and the experimental results obtained, are analyzed in detail in this paper.

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“…The use of a single quartz crystal for sensing is a well-known and important measuring technique based on the stability and reliability of the crystal oscillation [1][2][3][4]. Next to the mechanical influence on the crystal oscillation, one can also affect the reactance of the crystal and thus its serial resonant frequency [5][6][7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple Quartz Crystals Connected in Parallel for High-Resolution Sensing of Capacitance Changes

Matko

2022

Sensors

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We present a new highly sensitive, low-value capacitance sensor method that uses multiple quartz crystals connected in parallel inside the oscillator. In the experimental setup, the measured (sensible) reactance (capacitance) is connected in parallel to the total shunt capacitance of the quartz crystals, oscillating in the oscillator. Because AT-cut crystals have a certain nonlinear frequency–temperature dependence, we use the switching mode method, by which we achieve a temperature compensation of the AT-cut crystals’ frequency–temperature characteristics in the temperature range between 0–50 °C. The oscillator switching method also compensates for any other influences on the frequency of the oscillator, such as ageing of the crystals and oscillator elements, supply voltage fluctuations, and other parasitic impedances in the oscillating circuit. Subsequently using two 50-ms-delayed switches between the measuring and reference capacitors, the experimental error in measuring the capacitance is lowered for measurements under a dynamic temperature variation in the range of 0–50 °C. The experimental results show that the switching method, which includes a multiple quartz connection and high-temperature compensation improvement of the quartz crystals’ characteristics, enables a sub-aF resolution. It converts capacitance changes in the range 10 zF–200fF to frequencies in the range 4 kHz–100 kHz.

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Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Impedance Analysis Based on Virtual Instruments: Experimental Study

Cited by 16 publications

References 43 publications

Advanced Impedance Spectroscopy for QCM Sensor in Liquid Medium

Advanced Impedance Spectroscopy for QCM Sensor in Liquid Medium

A Study on Regenerative Quartz Crystal Microbalance

Multiple Quartz Crystals Connected in Parallel for High-Resolution Sensing of Capacitance Changes

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