Abstract: A sensing device is to be connected to a piezoelectric resonator for sensing a target substance in a sample fluid based on oscillation frequency of the piezoelectric resonator. The sensing device includes an oscillator circuit, a voltage supply unit, an information obtaining unit, and a voltage adjusting unit. The oscillator circuit is commonalized among a plurality kinds of piezoelectric resonators. The voltage supply unit is configured to supply a DC drive voltage to the oscillator circuit. The information obtaining unit is configured to obtain type information of a piezoelectric resonator which is connected to the oscillator circuit. The voltage adjusting unit is configured to adjust the DC drive voltage to a voltage corresponding to the connected piezoelectric resonator based on the type information obtained by the information obtaining unit.

Abstract: To provide a sensing device using a piezoelectric sensor having an oscillation area for detection and an oscillation area for reference and capable of achieving a high measurement sensitivity by improving shapes of excitation electrodes. On a quartz-crystal piece 20a, there are provided strip-shaped left side area and right side area which are formed symmetrically to be separated from each other into left and right with respect to a center of a circle 53 being a contour of a planar shape of a reaction channel 52 and extend in a longitudinal direction in a parallel manner.

Abstract: A user, when measuring a sensing target substance in fluid using a crystal sensor (sensing sensor) using a crystal vibrator whose natural frequency is varied by an absorption of the sending target, is able to easily and accurately grasp information peculiar to the crystal sensor, for instance, information regarding a quality thereof. An IC chip in which the information peculiar to the crystal sensor is stored is provided to the crystal sensor, and the peculiar information is read out at a side of a concentration measuring device when the crystal sensor is inserted into the concentration measuring device, and then displayed.

Abstract: Time-series data of piezoelectric resonator frequencies for each concentration of a substance to be absorbed is collectively displayed. An absorption start point of a substance to be absorbed is set in pieces of the time-series data. An editor combines and displays at least frequency variation regions in the data. The absorption start point setting is realized when an operator positions a pointer and clicks on the time-series data, or when an absorption start signal is output at the time when a solution is supplied.

Abstract: A sensing device is configured that a first piezoelectric vibrator and a second piezoelectric vibrator, changing over a connection to an oscillation circuit, have the oscillation circuit in common, that an impedance of a conductive path including a first one-surface-side electrode constituting the first piezoelectric vibrator from the oscillation circuit and an impedance of a conductive path including a second one-surface-side electrode constituting the second piezoelectric vibrator from the oscillation circuit are uniform with each other, and that an impedance of a conductive path including a first other-surface-side electrode constituting the first piezoelectric vibrator from the oscillation circuit and an impedance of a conductive path including a second other-surface-side electrode constituting the second piezoelectric vibrator from the oscillation circuit are uniform with each other.

Abstract: A piezoelectric sensor senses a substance to be measured in a sample solution, thereby conducting high-precision measurement. A pressing member has a solution storage space with a bottom surface being one surface of a piezoelectric resonator, and covering a recessed portion of a wiring board. The wiring board includes an annular projection surrounding the solution storage space and pressing a surface of the piezoelectric resonator. The wiring board is made of an elastic material. The annular projection has side surfaces that get smaller in diameter toward a lower side. The side surface of the solution storage space makes an obtuse angle to its bottom surface. At a corner portion made by these surfaces, an upper side of the bubbles are opened, and therefore, bubbles, even if entering the solution storage space, can float up.

Abstract: It is possible to determine the presence of bacteria in a sample solution in a shorter period of time without changing a conventional incubating method. Bacteria in a sample solution are incubated in, for example, a sterilized agar medium 10 having a layer thickness of 0.1 ?m to 1 ?m formed on an electrode of a crystal resonator 2, and an oscillation frequency is measured. When the bacteria proliferate, the mass of the entire crystal resonator 2 increases, and the oscillation frequency decreases. Therefore, by monitoring presence of such a change over time, presence of bacteria in the sample solution can be determined quickly.

Abstract: To provide a sensing device that holds a piezoelectric sensor and a channel forming member placed on the sensor in a closely contacted state while maintaining a shape of space of a passage space formed inside the device. In a sensing device 1100 that senses a substance to be sensed based on a variation in an oscillation frequency caused by an absorption of the substance to be sensed in an absorption layer provided on a piezoelectric resonator 1720 of a piezoelectric sensor 1700, a holding member 1600 holds the piezoelectric sensor 1700 and a channel forming member 1730 that forms a passage space through which a sample fluid passes on an upper surface side of the sensor, in a vertically stacked state. A cover member 1510 is placed on the channel forming member 1730, and a pressing part 1350 which is raised/lowered by a first raising/lowering mechanism 1300 presses the cover member 1510 placed on the channel forming member 1730 downward with a previously set force.

Abstract: In a sensing instrument using a quartz sensor on whose front surface an adsorption layer for adsorbing a substance to be sensed is formed and which changes in natural frequency by the adsorption of the substance to be sensed, the present invention has an object to quickly detect a trouble of the quartz sensor to prevent an operator from recognizing an incorrect measurement result. In the present invention, a level detecting circuit detecting a signal level of an oscillation output of an oscillator circuit is provided, and after the time for stabilization passes after the power-on time, a computer takes a level detection value therein to compare the signal level and a threshold value. Then, when the signal level is lower than the threshold value, the signal level is determined as abnormal and, for example, the abnormality notification is displayed on a display unit, whereby an operator is notified of the occurrence of the abnormality.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a sensing device capable of easily grasping whether or not a concentration of a sensing target is equal to or less than a standard value.

Abstract: It is possible to determine the presence of bacteria in a sample solution in a shorter period of time without changing a conventional incubating method. Bacteria in a sample solution are incubated in, for example, a sterilized agar medium 10 having a layer thickness of 0.1 ?m to 1 ?m formed on an electrode of a crystal resonator 2, and an oscillation frequency is measured. When the bacteria proliferate, the mass of the entire crystal resonator 2 increases, and the oscillation frequency decreases. Therefore, by monitoring presence of such a change over time, presence of bacteria in the sample solution can be determined quickly.

Abstract: In adopting a structure in which an oscillator circuit unit and an instrument main body including a measuring unit are separately formed in a sensing instrument measuring the concentration of or determining the presence/absence of a substance to be sensed by using a quartz sensor, the present invention has an object to enable the instrument main body side to know an oscillation frequency of the connected oscillator circuit unit.

Abstract: To provide a sensing device using a piezoelectric sensor having an oscillation area for detection and an oscillation area for reference and capable of achieving a high measurement sensitivity by improving shapes of excitation electrodes. On a quartz-crystal piece 20a, there are provided strip-shaped left side area and right side area which are formed symmetrically to be separated from each other into left and right with respect to a center of a circle 53 being a contour of a planar shape of a reaction channel 52 and extend in a longitudinal direction in a parallel manner.

Abstract: To provide a sensing device that measures a substance to be sensed while letting a sample solution flow and has improved accuracy in detecting the substance to be sensed. The sensing device includes: a channel forming member 50 including an opposed surface opposed to an oscillation area on one surface side of a piezoelectric sensor via a gap to form a reaction channel in an area facing the one surface side; a liquid supply channel through which a liquid is supplied to the reaction channel and a liquid discharge channel through which a liquid is discharged from the reaction channel; oscillator circuits 30a, 30b oscillating the quartz-crystal piece; and a frequency measuring part 81 measuring oscillation frequencies of the oscillator circuits 30a, 30b, wherein a height of the reaction channel facing the oscillation area on the one surface side of the quartz-crystal sensor is 0.2 mm or less.

Abstract: To provide a sensing device capable of easily sensing a substance to be sensed with high accuracy. When sensing, by supplying a sample solution to an absorption layer 46 while oscillating a quartz-crystal resonator 4 to make the absorption layer absorb a substance to be sensed in the sample solution, the substance to be sensed based on an amount of variation in an oscillation frequency of the quartz-crystal resonator 4 after an absorption time elapses, the quartz-crystal resonator 4 is oscillated, before supplying the sample solution to the absorption layer 46, to measure the oscillation frequency of the quartz-crystal resonator 4 at a predetermined measurement interval, for instance, at every one second, and the oscillation frequency of the quartz-crystal resonator 4 is stabilized for the same period of time as a measuring time 19 until the measurement result becomes equal to or less than a frequency tolerance value 19b previously set based on a measurement sensitivity of the substance to be sensed.

Abstract: To provide a sensing device having a high processing power and capable of high-accuracy measurement. It is determined whether or not an oscillation frequency is stabilized while a buffer solution is supplied to a quartz-crystal resonator 4 from a syringe pump 10. When it is determined that the frequency is stabilized, a second valve 14 is switched to a sample solution supply mode to supply a sample solution in an injection loop 14a to the quartz-crystal resonator 4. An instant at which the sample solution reaches the quartz-crystal resonator 4 and an instant at which the sample solution finishes passing through the quartz-crystal resonator 4 are automatically found based on a supply flow rate of the buffer solution, a volume of the injection loop 14a, a volume of a supply channel supplying the sample solution to the quartz-crystal resonator 4, and an instant at which the second valve 14 is switched to the sample solution supply mode.

Abstract: To provide a sensing device and a sensing method that, by a simple method of liquid supply to first and second excitation electrodes, makes it possible to make a first oscillation area adsorb an adsorption substance that adsorbs a substance to be sensed in a sample solution and a blocking substance that prevents the adsorption of a substance and to make the electrode in a second oscillation area adsorb the blocking substance. By the supply of a solution containing the adsorption substance to a first liquid storage space 53A surrounding a first excitation electrode 42A, a front surface of the excitation electrode 42A is made to adsorb the adsorption substance, and next, by the supply of a solution containing the blocking substance to the first liquid storage space 53A, an area, of the excitation electrode 42A, on which the adsorption substance is not adsorbed, is made to adsorb the blocking substance.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to enable a user, when measuring a sensing target substance in fluid using a crystal sensor (sensing sensor) using a crystal vibrator whose natural frequency is varied by an absorption of the sensing target, to easily and accurately grasp information peculiar to the crystal sensor, for instance, information regarding a quality thereof. As a concrete means for solving the problem, it is designed such that an IC chip in which the information peculiar to the crystal sensor is stored is provided to the crystal sensor, and the peculiar information is read out at a side of a concentration measuring device when the crystal sensor is inserted into the concentration measuring device, and then displayed.

Abstract: Provided is a PLL apparatus realizing extremely high frequency stability. As a concrete means for solving the problem, an A/D (analog/digital) conversion unit samples a standard signal based on 40 MHz frequency signal, which is a rectangular wave, from an oven controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO), and an orthogonal transformation unit applies orthogonal transformation to a digital signal from the A/D conversion unit to extract a real part (I) and an imaginary part (Q) which are complex expression of a phase vector equivalent to a phase difference between the standard signal and the frequency signal from the OCXO. An angular velocity of this vector is detected and a direct-current voltage according to the angular velocity is generated and supplied to the OCXO via a PWM control unit.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to provide a piezoelectric sensor sensing a substance to be measured in a sample solution, thereby conducting high-precision measurement. As a concrete solving means, a piezoelectric sensor is structured such that it includes a pressing member in which a solution storage space having a bottom surface being one surface of a piezoelectric resonator provided to cover a recessed portion of a wiring board is formed, which includes an annular projection provided to surround the solution storage space and pressing a portion, of the one surface of the piezoelectric resonator, outside the recessed portion toward the wiring board to fix a position of the piezoelectric resonator, and which is made of an elastic material, and the annular projection is structured such that both side surfaces thereof get smaller in diameter toward a lower side and a distance between the both side surfaces gets smaller toward the lower side.