A probe-type high-precision micro-force sensor based on quartz DETF resonator

Force measurement is widely applied in many applications. Resonant force sensors are featured with high accuracies, high resolutions, and long-term stabilities. In this paper, we report a probe-type high-precision force sensor based on a quartz resonator. The scale factor of our sensor is 161.5 mHz μN−1 and the bias stability of the sensor is 20 ppb (parts per billion) for an averaging time of 0.2 s. A comprehensive test showed that the nominal theoretical resolution of our sensor was 5 nN, and the repeated stability of our sensor has been proven by several controlled tests. With its large measurement range of 50 mN, the dynamic range of the sensor is up to 140 dB.