Sensitivity, noise, and resolution in QCM sensors in liquid media

The use of quartz-crystal oscillators as high-sensitivity microbalance sensors is limited by the frequency noise present in the circuit. To characterize the behavior of the sensors, it is not enough to determine their experimental sensitivity, but, rather, it is essential to study the frequency fluctuations in order to establish the sensor resolution. This is fundamental in the case of oscillators for damping media, because the level of noise rises due to the strong decline of the quality factor of the resonator. In this paper, a comparative study of noise and resolution is presented with respect to the frequency and the quality factor. The study has been made using four oscillators designed to be used in quartz-crystal microbalance sensors in damping media. The four circuits have been designed at increasing frequencies in order to improve the sensitivity or frequency change per unit of measurand. Also, the present theoretical resolution limit or best resolution achievable with a microbalance oscillator using an AT resonator is determined, since this does not depend on frequency. However, when operating in liquid, the damping of the resonator makes the resolution diminish due to a worsening of the quality factor. The relationship between the resolution limit and the frequency and characteristics of the liquid medium is determined. The resolution worsens when the density and viscosity of the liquid is increased. However, in this case, an increase in frequency implies a small increase in resolution. Therefore, we find that when working below the maximum quality factor, for similar values, the resolution can be improved by elevating the work frequency.     

Contributions of amplitude measurement in QCM sensors

The characteristics of the amplifier and the feedback loop of a quartz crystal series oscillating circuit are investigated. The fact that the change of the vibration amplitude of the quartz crystal is proportional to the change of its motional resistance is derived. The concept of a characteristic damping coefficient is introduced and the behavior of a quartz crystal vibrating in liquids is analyzed. The experiment shows that the effect of mass loading can be distinguished from that of the liquid damping of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor in liquids by simultaneously measuring the amplitude and the frequency change     

A switched-capacitor interface for capacitive sensors based onrelaxation oscillators

A switched-capacitor (SC) interface for capacitive sensors based on a modified Martin's relaxation oscillator is proposed. The output signal is the duty-cycle of a pulse-width modulated square-wave voltage or a binary-coded digital signal which is directly related to the capacitance ratio of an unknown capacitance and reference capacitance. The circuit can be implemented in a monolithic IC form using CMOS technology. It requires a relatively small device count integrable onto a small chip area and its suited particularly for the on-chip interface circuitry for microprocessors     

A measurement system for odor classification based on the dynamic response of QCM sensors

In this paper, an innovative measurement system for odor classification, based on quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs), is presented. The application proposed in this paper is the detection of typical wine aroma compounds in mixtures containing ethanol. In QCM sensors, the sensitive layer is, e.g., a polymeric layer deposited on a quartz surface. Chemical mixtures are sorbed in the sensitive layer, inducing a change in the polymer mass and, therefore, in the quartz resonance frequency. In this paper, the frequency shift is measured by a dedicated, fully digital front-end hardware implementing a technique that allows reducing the measurement time while maintaining a high-frequency resolution . The developed system allows, therefore, measuring variations of the QCM resonance frequency shifts during chemical transients obtained with abrupt changes in odor concentration. Hence, the reaction kinetics can be exploited to enhance the sensor selectivity. In this paper, some measurements obtained with an array of four sensors with different polymeric sensitive layers are presented. An exponential fitting of the transient responses is used for feature extraction. Finally, to reduce data dimensionality, principal component analysis is used.     

Alignment considerations in extrinsic fiber-optic sensors

The performance of a fiber-optic sensor and its overall cost depend on the packaging of the sensor. Alignment of different optical, optoelectronic, and mechanical components is a key problem in the package design of a fiber-optic sensor. An intensity based fiber-optic sensor that can be used as a refractive-index or displacement sensor is considered as a case study in analyzing the effects of alignment on the performance of a fiber-optic sensor. Alignability of this sensor package is defined and calculated, taking into account the coupling efficiency and effects of various misalignments. Guidelines for making the package so that the fiber-optic sensor works more efficiently are developed from our calculations.     

In-liquid sensing of chemical compounds by QCM sensors coupled with high-accuracy ACC oscillator

A novel oscillator circuit with automatic capacitance compensation (ACC) capability has been coupled with quartz-crystal-microbalance (QCM) sensors coated with quinoxaline- and pyrazine-bridged cavitands to detect aromatic and chlorinated compounds in water. With double-side immersed 10-MHz crystals coated with the quinoxaline cavitand, the detection of toluene in deionized water was possible down to concentrations of a few parts per million. The ACC oscillator advantageously provides the simultaneous measurement of the sensor resonant frequency, damping, and value of the compensated parallel capacitance. This enabled observing that the analyte sorption in the cavitand coating not only brings about a mass uptake but also an increase of losses and, apparently, a rise in the coating average permittivity.     

Toward resonator anharmonic sensors for precision crystal oscillators: a Gaussian model

This paper addresses the statistical properties of eigenfrequency modes (anharmonics, for instance) of BAW crystal resonators in oscillators excited by noise or intended modulation and considered to be sensors of environmental impact. The modulated noisy model of a closed loop oscillator is studied for its amplitude-frequency and phase-frequency modulation characteristics caused by anharmonic influence. Pursuing the aim, we consider in detail amplitude, phase, and the time derivatives of an anharmonic sensor signal and present corresponding probability distributions for the different signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Both statistical effects caused by noise and intended modulation are considered. Experimental results are also given.     

Design considerations for refrigeration cycles

The Carnot COP, which assumes a thermodynamically ideal cycle in which no irreversibilities exist, is often considered to be a design goal for actual cycles. However, the Carnot COP does not consider heat transfer mechanisms. Heat transfer at a finite rate is necessarily an irreversible process and unavoidable in a refrigeration cycle. The lack of consideration of rate processes reduces the usefulness of the Carnot COP as a realistic design goal. In this paper, the limitations of both thermodynamics and heat transfer are considered to identify a more realistic design goal for the COP of refrigeration cycles. The consideration of heat transfer limitations leads to a design rule for the optimum distribution of heat exchange area between the low- and high-temperature heat exchangers.     

A bounded optimal control for maximizing the reliability of randomly excited nonlinear oscillators with fractional derivative damping

In this paper, a bounded optimal control for maximizing the reliability of randomly excited nonlinear oscillators with fractional derivative damping is proposed. First, the partially averaged It? equations for the energy processes of individual degree of freedom are derived by using the stochastic averaging method. Second, the dynamical programming equations for the control problems of maximizing the reliability function and maximizing the mean first passage time are established from the partially averaged It? equations by using the dynamical programming principle. The optimal control law is derived from the dynamical programming equation and control constraints. Third, the conditional reliability function and mean first passage time of the optimally controlled system are obtained by solving the backward Kolmogorov equation and Pontryagin equation associated with the fully averaged It? equation, respectively. The application of the proposed procedure and effectiveness of the control strategy are illustrated by using two examples. Besides, the effect of fractional derivative order on the reliability of the optimally controlled system is examined.     

Apparatus for determining the damping capacity and torsional fatigue strength of specimens in various media

The apparatus described in this article consists of a torsion bar (test piece) with two inertia masses (housing of the apparatus and an inertia wheel) attached to its ends. Two electromagnets and two armatures are used to twist the test piece. The mechanical oscillations are translated into electrical oscillations and fed to the loop of an oscillograph. For tests in liquid or gaseous media a device is attached to the test piece to ensure continuous contact between its surface and the working medium.     

Thickness optimization of metal films for the development of surface-plasmon-based sensors for nonabsorbing media

The surface-plasmon resonance (SPR) effect in metals is highly sensitive to fluctuations in the optical properties of the interface and has been frequently employed in the Kretschmann configuration for optical sensing. The operating conditions required for using the SPR effect for probing nonabsorbing media under maximum sensitivity are derived analytically under the Lorentzian approximation. It is found that the film thickness that maximizes sensitivity occurs when the radiation damping of the oscillation is half the intrinsic damping. Numerical results are presented for the spectral dependence of the optimum thickness as well as of the SPR parameters of gold, copper, silver, and aluminum films, useful for the design of optical sensors for both gaseous and aqueous environments.     

Design of multi-objective damping controller for gate-controlled series capacitor

This paper proposes an optimization procedure based on eigenvalues to carry out the stabilization function of the Gate-Controlled Series Capacitor (GCSC) in a power system. It is aimed to provide a reliable damping framework by means of a GCSC based multi-objective damping controller. The proposed method employs Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to search for optimal parameter settings of a widely used multi-objective lead-lag damping controller. The eigenvalue analysis is considered as the cornerstone of the performed studies in order to investigate the multi-objective methodology in which the unstable or lightly damped modes are scheduled to effectively shift to some prescribed stability zones in the s-plane. The effectiveness of the suggested approach in damping local and interarea oscillations modes in a multi-machine power system, over a wide range of loading conditions, is confirmed through eigenvalue analysis and time simulation.     

Design considerations for STJ x-ray detectors

The geometrical shape and layer thicknesses of superconducting tunnel junctions (STJ) influence their suitability as x-ray detectors. Examples relating to field biasing are discussed. Two related energy loss mechanisms are also modeled.     

Active damping of rotating composite thin-walled beams using MFC actuators and PVDF sensors

The object of this research is to enhance the damping performance for vibration suppression of rotating composite thin-walled beams using MFC actuators and PVDF sensors. The formulation is based on single cell composite beam including a warping function, centrifugal force, Coriolis acceleration and piezoelectric effect. Adaptive capability of the beam is acquired through the use of a negative velocity feedback control algorithm. Numerical analysis is performed using finite element method and Newmark time integration method is used to calculate the time response of the model. It is observed that the feedback control gain has an effect on damping performance. The paper continues with an investigation into influences of parameters such as the rotating speed and the fiber orientation in host structures. Also, it is confirmed that effective damping performance is achievable through the suitable arrangement and distributed size of sensor and actuator pair using case study.     

Design rules for lossy mode resonance based sensors

Lossy mode resonances can be obtained in the transmission spectrum of cladding removed multimode optical fiber coated with a thin-film. The sensitivity of these devices to changes in the properties of the coating or the surrounding medium can be optimized by means of the adequate parameterization of the coating refractive index, the coating thickness, and the surrounding medium refractive index. Some basic rules of design, which enable the selection of the best parameters for each specific sensing application, are indicated in this work.     

Design considerations for piezoelectric polymer ultrasound transducers

Much work has been published on the design of ultrasound transducers using piezoelectric ceramics, but a great deal of this work does not apply when using the piezoelectric polymers because of their unique electrical and mechanical properties. The purpose of this paper is to review and present new insight into seven important considerations for the design of active piezoelectric polymer ultrasound transducers: piezoelectric polymer materials selection, transducer construction and packaging requirements, materials characterization and modeling, film thickness and active area design, electroding selection, backing material design, and front protection/matching layer design. Besides reviewing these design considerations, this paper also presents new insight into the design of active piezoelectric polymer ultrasonic transducers. The design and fabrication of an immersible ultrasonic transducer, which has no adhesive layer between the active element and backing layer, is included. The transducer features direct deposition of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] copolymer onto an insulated aluminum backing substrate. Pulse-echo tests indicated a minimum insertion loss of 37 dB and -6 dB bandwidth of 9.8 to 22 MHz (71%). The use of polymer wear-protection/quarter-wave matching layers is also discussed. Test results on a P(VDF-TrFE) transducer showed that a Mylar/sup TM/ front layer provided a slight increase in pulse-echo amplitude of 15% (or 1.2 dB) and an increase in -6 dB pulse-echo fractional bandwidth from 86 to 95%. Theoretical derivations are reported for optimizing the active area of the piezoelectric polymer element for maximum power transfer at resonance. These derivations are extended to the special case for a low profile (i.e., thin) shielded transducer. A method for modeling the non-linear loading effects of a commercial pulser-receiver is also included.