Theses and Dissertations Collection

The purpose of this project as proposed is to further the knowledge of crystal oscillator and quartz crystal microbalance systems, while attempting to increase insight into the systems behavior by investigating the fundamental electrical properties and behavior of the system during operation. This was accomplished through the integration of previously discovered measurement techniques and equipment that have as of yet not been applied to these type of systems. By implementing and combining the results obtained by this project as well as future research it is anticipated that many new relationships and equations relating the behaviors exhibited by the system may be obtained while improving the accuracy of values traditionally being measured.

Using electrical results from common oscillator systems as a control values for more refined QCM systems, it is possible to compare the data to digital models of these systems. The results produced by the uncoated QCM tracked very closely to the digital model whose properties were matched to its specifications, even after accounting for any potential sources of error. Using this digital model it is possible to correlate the commonly measured electrical values and properties of QCM systems to their resulting mechanical behavior. These types of comparisons are necessary in order to gain additional insight into the system and the relationship between the voltage/current and mechanical properties in piezoelectric resonators as described by current piezoelectric theory.