Creating an open-source quartz crystal microbalance with Arduino

Atmel | Bits & Pieces

openQCM is a highly-sensitive microbalance with a wide-range of applications in chemistry, biology and material science.

Created by a group of Italian physicists, openQCM is a fully open-source quartz crystal microbalance project built around the versatile Arduino Micro (ATmega32U4). Impressively, the device is capable of weighing mass deposition down to 1 billionth of gram.

Novaetech S.r.l. initially designed openQCM keeping in mind the emergent principles of the open-source hardware movement, which provides people the freedom to control their technology through the open exchange of all the project features, electronics and software. Team member Marco Mauro notes that while open hardware has already made an impact across a wide-range of segments, when it comes to scientific applications, its potential is even greater.

“openQCM is the first open hardware quartz crystal microbalance with applications in a wide range of scientific fields, such as chemical and biological sensing, material science,” the team writes.