Mark 10 TQCMTM Sensor, The Industry Standard

The Mark 10 Thermoelectric Quartz Crystal Microbalance (MK10 TQCM^TM) has become the defacto industry standard TQCM since being introduced over 18 years ago.

By cooling the 10 or 15MHz quartz crystals, measurements can be made of the mass flow as it intercepts and is condensed at a specific temperature. Recently, the new 15 MHz Sun-Wise crystals have been added to offset the solar thermal radiant input on the crystals.

The MK10 can be cooled by its own internal thermoelectric Peltier element without any external refrigerant, with a delta T of > 70�C when the heat sink is at ambient temperature. This feature makes it particularly useful for material laboratories in their investigation of vacuum outgassing of spacecraft materials. Monolayers of contamination are quite easily seen. Additionally, a flight modified MK10, placed on a satellite will assure that the sensor crystal temperature for condensation of your particular contaminates will be obtained. A system of two MK10 sensors have been supplied for measuring the backflow of gasses onto a satellite from an ion rocket exhaust.

Baking the QCM at 40� to 50�C eliminates the accumulated contaminants. The technique of slowly raising the temperature can be used for selectively identifying all of the fractionations that may be condensed. If the MK10 is actually cooled externally at its heat sink plane of attachment, the lowest temperature at which it can operate is lowered to approximately -200�C.

Mark 10 Configuration

Mark 10 Pin Assignment