Development of a Real-Time QCM Bond-Rupture System for POCT Applications

The research of a piezoelectric biosensor [quartz crystal microbalance (QCM)] can provide an effective, real-time point-of-care testing detection technology for the use in the areas of healthcare, clinical research, drug screening, food inspection, marine environmental protection, and so on. The detecting system now used in the QCM sensors has some limitations on accuracy. A new QCM bond-rupture system was, therefore, developed to measure the resonant frequency changes with mass loading. It has the higher sensitivity than a network analyzer. An efficient algorithms of resonant frequency tracking were also investigated, which leads to the 0.14-Hz/(ng · cm
^-2
) sensitivity.