Resolution in quartz crystal oscillator circuits for high sensitivity microbalance sensors in damping media
Résumé
The use of quartz crystal oscillators as high sensitivity microbalance sensors is limited by the frequency noise present in the circuit. To characterise the behaviour 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.