Suppressing the frequency jump in quartz crystal microbalance

Abstract

Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) acquires the mass information through measuring the frequency shift. The detection sensitivity can achieve to nano-gram. A type of 15MHz QCM used in space contamination detection appeared the frequency jump when switching the power supply repeatedly, which disabled the measurement function. The analysis was made from quartz resonator and oscillator circuit which deciding the QCM's frequency, and the conclusion was drawn that properly designing the resonator electrodes and the oscillator circuit parameters could suppress the frequency jump. The suppressing methods were carried out on the 15MHz quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), and effectively controlled the frequency jump. Trying the power supply switching test 200 times, the frequency jump didn't appear any more. At the end, a simple method to verify the suppressing effect is provided.