I D Avramov 2009 Meas. Sci. Technol. 20 124006 doi:10.1088/0957-0233/20/12/124006
I D Avramov
Show affiliationsThis study describes a sensor oscillator appropriate for quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) based measurements in highly viscous liquids. The oscillator is stabilized by a recently developed impedance transformation QCM filter network which greatly reduces electrical load by the sustaining amplifier. In addition, it provides zero phase and a well-behaved symmetric resonance at the QCM series resonant frequency fs over three orders of magnitude variation range of the motional resistance Rm. The sustaining amplifier has constant pure resistive input and output impedances to eliminate phase shifts due to QCM impedance changes with liquid load. Also, it allows precise gain and phase control for accurate adjustment of the oscillator frequency at fs and extraction of Rm information at the measured liquid load. The oscillator was tested with different water-based glycerol solutions in the 40–100 wt% range. The worst-case frequency error was 4.7% in this viscosity range.
07.07.Df Sensors (chemical, optical, electrical, movement, gas, etc.); remote sensing
07.10.Lw Balance systems, tensile machines, etc.
84.30.Ng Oscillators, pulse generators, and function generators
85.50.-n Dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric devices
Issue 12 (December 2009)
Received 29 April 2009, in final form 19 May 2009
Published 26 October 2009
I D Avramov 2009 Meas. Sci. Technol. 20 124006
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