%0 Journal Article
%T Real-Time Frequency Tracking of an Electro-Thermal Piezoresistive Cantilever Resonator with ZnO Nanorods for Chemical Sensing
%J Chemosensors | An Open Access Journal from MDPI
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors7010002
%X The asymmetric resonance response in electro-thermal piezoresistive cantilever resonators causes a need of an optimization treatment for taking parasitic actuation-sensing effects into account. An electronic reference circuit for signal subtraction, integrated with the cantilever resonator has the capability to reduce the effect of parasitic coupling. Measurement results demonstrated that a symmetric amplitude shape (Lorentzian) and an optimized phase characteristic (i.e., monotonically decreasing) were successfully extracted from an asymmetric resonance response. With the monotonic phase response, real-time frequency tracking can be easier to implement using a phase-locked loop (PLL) system. In this work, an electro-thermal piezoresistive cantilever resonator functionalized with self-assembled monolayers of chitosan-covered ZnO nanorod arrays as sensitive layers has been investigated under different relative humidity ( rH) levels. Enhancement of resonance phase response has been demonstrated by implementing the reference signal subtraction. Subsequently, a lock-in amplifier integrated with PLL system (MFLI, Zurich Instruments, Zurich, Switzerland) was then employed for continuously tracking the resonant frequency. As a result, we find a good correlation of frequency shift (£¿ f 0) with change in rH monitored using a commercial reference sensor. View Full-Tex
%U https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9040/7/1/2