Analysis of the effect of electrode thickness on QCM mass sensitivity

In this paper, the effect of the electrode thickness on the mass sensitivity distribution of QCM with a circular electrode is analyzed by the Finite Element Method (COMSOL software). The simulation results show that as the electrode thickness increases, more vibration energy is transferred into the central region of the QCM surface, resulting in the increase of the mass sensitivity in the central region and the decrease of the mass sensitivity in the region outside the center. When the electrode thickness reaches 200 nm, the increase in mass sensitivity will be not obvious. An appropriate thickness range of 100nm-200nm is obtained. The research is meaningful for the design of QCM.