A practical implementation of measurement system for QTF sensing application

In recent years, Quartz Tuning Fork (QTF) has gained much interest in developing sensor technology due to its excellent mechanical characteristics. Thus, a fully equipped and featured measurement system is essential for deploying the novel sensing technology. The traditional QTF sensing system configuration method is developed based on lock-in technology for advanced microscopy techniques. The implementation seeks the best sensitivity and functionality regardless of the complexity and cost. However, implementing the whole measurement system is relatively cumbersome and expensive. In addition, the equipment set-up is complicated, and the operation is tedious. This paper presents a practical implementation of a Quartz Tuning Fork (QTF) sensor-based measurement system, including sophisticated electronic hardware and advanced data processing software development. Implementing the high-speed data acquisition technique simplifies the system configuration compared to the traditional lock-in method. Fourier analysis combined with the nonlinear curve fitting technique improves the systematic characteristics of measurement, where the developed system minimises the computation requirement while overcoming the limitation of the quantisation interval of FFT at the same time, which allows determining the resonance frequency at the dynamic mode where a 10^-3𝐻z quantisation interval of resolution can be achieved.