|
Quartz Crystal Microbalance QCMagic ( QCM) |
||
|
The Quartz Crystal Microbalance QCMagic (QCM) set-up has been designed to directly drive piezoelectric transducers. It consists of single/multiple measuring units, driven by a USB base unit, suitable for:
|
||
|
QCMagic is a high precision measuring instrument featuring excellent performance in the recovery of the oscillation frequency of a working quartz crystal.The system is interfaced to the driving PC by means of the USB port. One single Base Unit can drive up to 4 oscillator modules, thus allowing to operate with up to 4 independent quartz crystals (or with two pairs of working/reference crystals). QCMagic can be equipped with low-volume static or flow-through reaction chambers, which house the oscillating crystal; fitting the transducer into the different type of cells is rapid and convenient. QCMagic makes use of a precision internal reference crystal, used as a timebase comparator. Depending on the frequency of this internal timebase, each Unit can be tuned to work with a specific working crystal, choosen between 1 and 10 MHz. The Oscillator Modules are connected to the Base Unit by means of a RJ45 cable carrying both power supply and signals.
[click on the images to enlarge]
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Max resolution (gate dependent) ±0.05 Hz |
||
|
Gate interval 0.01 to 10 s |
||
|
Frequency stability 100 ppm/°C |
||
|
Counter logic 32 bit |
||
|
Air oscillator TTL compatible |
||
|
Liquid oscillator TTL compatible |
||
|
Interface USB port |
||
|
Instrument output delta f (proportional to electrode mass) |
||
|
Biochemical output analyte concentration |
||
|
Transducer quartz crystal AT-cut, 9.5 MHz (standard)1 to 10 MHz (optional) |
||
|
Units 1 to 4 |
||
|
Crystal port standard 125 mm |
||
|
Warm-up interval 30-40 min (only after first power-up to meet above stability specifications) |
||
|
Software Real time frequency data via dedicated software (windows application running under Win 9x, NT, 2000, XP, Vista) |
||
|
Physical dimensions(base Unit) 165 x 35 x 65 mm (L x H x W) |
||
|
Power supply external +12 Vdc |
||
|
Operating temperature 0° to 55°C |
||
|
|
QCMagic
is interfaced with a personal computer by USB port for data
acquisition and storage. The system is driven by an extremely
user-friendly software running under MS-WindowsTM. It consist of
a lower level kernel which implements the necessary data
transfer between the computer and the unit(s), and of a high
level set of routines which drive the user through an easy to
perform data acquisition and analysis. In addition to the data
acquisition service routine, an useful data display has been
implemented by which the user can easily retrieve the acquired
signal levels. Oscillating frequency versus time measurements
can be performed following the data acqusition in real time on
the computer screen, by means of strip chart plotting.
Optionally
we can provide an additional software tool "QCMath" allowing a
mathematical analysis on acquired data or on any .xls (Microsoft
Excel) data file.
