Design and Implementation of a Cost Effective Quartz Crystal Microbalance System for Monitoring Small Changes on any Surface

Abstract

Quartz crystal microbalance systems are widely used in different fields from biology to electronic. Those devices are very sensitive to mass changes on the piezoelectric crystal surface in nano gram scale and therefore can be used to detect even a single virus on surface of any substance. Although they are very practical and versatile, they are sold with very high prices and thus hindering the usage for someone with tight research budget. In this work, we try to find a cost effective solution and bring this device into the price range on two to three orders of magnitude lower than the commercial counterparts. For that purpose, we develop a cost effective quartz crystal microbalance system using a cost effective microcontroller and a typical oscillator circuit and the final product can be used in different fields to detect the mass change on any surface caused by different reactions or effects.