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Phase-Locked Loops

Fast PLL Optimization for High Q Resonators Without Frequency Sweeps

19.09.2023

PID error before and after optimization

Resonators with very high Q factor are notoriously complicated to lock because of the steep slope phase at resonance. Precise determination of phase setpoint and gains can be highly time consuming since very high frequency resolution is required. This blog explains how to optimize the PLL by starting with an educated guess and optimizing everything in closed-loop, which is much faster than conventional open-loop characterizations.

Mass Sensing – An Overview

08.11.2022

Mass Sensing

Among sensing applications, mass measurements have received a lot of attention with the shrinking of devices and the ability to detect individual particles. We have witnessed the shift from macroscopic devices such as the micro-balance to micrometer-size resonator devices and, now, to 2D or 1D materials with exquisite resolution down to a single proton's mass...

Best Practices in Sensor Characterization and Control - Q&A

02.12.2021

Bode plot of the resonance of a sensor

For this webinar we teamed up with Dr. Tomás Manzaneque , whose work focuses on the fabrication, modeling and interfacing of mechanical micro-resonators in different fields of application: examples are rheological sensing, ultra-sensitive mass sensing, passive conditioning of RF signals for the Internet-of-Things communications, and single-cell biopsy. His research interests...

Sensor Characterization and Control

25.05.2020

Lock-in Principle

Sensors come in different flavors. They can be inertial devices for motion detection, tehy can be based on photosensitive materials, they can absorb surrounding molecules to detect their concentration, and so on. Developments in micromachining and micro-/nano-electromechanical system (MEMS/NEMS) technologies led to miniaturization and low power consumption. Hence, multiple sensors...

Compensating Delay-Induced Phase Shifts for High-Frequency Resonators

20.02.2017

Compensation Delay Schematic

Phase-locked loops (PLL) or other PID controllers on nano-mechanical resonators rely on clean phase signals that exhibit large slope, or significant phase shift, around the resonance frequency. For really high-frequency NEMS and opto-mechanical systems above a few tens or hundreds of MHz, any small delay can have significant effect on...

Listening to FM Radio with the UHFLI

17.04.2013

FM Radio Sweep

Someone at Zurich Instruments soldered a 3.5-mm headphone socket to a BNC cable and attached a 75-cm antenna wire to the Signal Input of the UHFLI Lock-in Amplifier with the UHF-PID PID/PLL option and was happily listening to FM radio. Abuse alert! I instantly had to copy that one.

Q-Control Example VI Tutorial

04.12.2012

Q-Control Schematic

Using a Zurich Instruments lock-in amplifier, you can measure the quality factor of an arbitrary resonator - typically a resonant beam used in non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) applications. This can be useful to increase phase sensitivity in a phase-locked loop (PLL) setup, for example, or to increase the characteristic...

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