Design of a multi-channel quartz crystal microbalance data acquisition system

Abstract

In this study a multi-channel data acquisition system has been designed, by which mass changes in small quantities can be monitored and recorded by means of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technique. The whole system is controlled by an Arduino Atmega 2560 microcontroller and can be run independently or via a personal computer. A PIC16F628A microcontroller is used for each channel of the prototype device designed for the system, and frequency measurements of the QCM crystals to be used for sensor investigations have been performed by this microcontroller. The temperatures of sensor environments and ambient humidity can be measured at the same time as the frequency measurements. The frequency response performance of QCM crystal has been tested by experiment. The system is able to measure and monitor QCM frequencies in the 1–50 MHz range, at 1 ppm accuracy and 1 Hz precision. The front surface of a QCM crystal was coated with NiO by a physical vapor deposition technique, and the mass of the film layer grown on the QCM crystal surface was precisely calculated to be 26.53 µg with an error rate of less than 1%. The mass value obtained in this way is in reasonably good agreement with the values obtained by oscilloscope and frequency meter methods.

Review—Electronic Circuit Systems for Piezoelectric Resonance Sensors

“…• High-speed measurement achievable. [77][78][79] • Dissipation monitoring by the AGC. 49,50,53 • Automatic lock-in at the MSRF with dissipation monitoring.…”

“…A 4-channel QCM measurement system was presented in. 79 In the system, the oscillating signals of the QCM oscillators are connected to each microcontroller. The frequency measurement is performed by a 16bit timer and a counter unit imbedded in microcontrollers.…”

A Miniaturized Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) Measurement Instrument Based on a Phase-Locked Loop Circuit

“…The frequency resolution (∆f ) can be then obtained by dividing the difference in the number of input pulses (∆N) by the measurement time (t). In effect, the highest frequency resolution of 1 Hz can be achieved with a measurement time of one second [20]. However, since both a higher frequency resolution and shorter measurement time are desirable in QCM measurement systems, a reciprocal counter is usually implemented as an alternative [19].…”

Intelligent Mobile Electronic Nose System Comprising a Hybrid Polymer-Functionalized Quartz Crystal Microbalance Sensor Array

“…In terms of data acquisition (DAQ) for QCM, a commercial device has already been offered by OpenQCM, Novaetech, Italy. − However, it is limited only to a single-channel system. Thus, it is not suitable to be used directly for the e-nose device, where several QCM sensors in an array have to be brought into operation simultaneously. , …”

“…Thus, it is not suitable to be used directly for the e-nose device, where several QCM sensors in an array have to be brought into operation simultaneously. 66,67 To circumvent all of the above issues, in this work, we developed a completely portable low-cost e-nose system by integrating a hybrid polymer-coated QCM sensor array with a custom-built calibrated multichannel DAQ circuitry and machine learning-based data analysis. Four different spincoated polymer thin films (i.e., PAN, PVAc, PVDF/PVAc, and PVP) were used resulting in different sensitivities toward various VOCs.…”