The potentiostat is a circuit design that provides a working potential to the electrodes and adjusts the current signal among the three electrodes to an appropriate level.
In our own project, we are building our own homemade potentiostat by following the circuit diagram from the publication. At the initial stage, our group built the prototype on a breadboard and carried out a round of testing. We then translated the design to a .PCB board to reduce the noise and improve the results. |
Prototype on Breadboard
PCB
A printed circuit board (PCB) mechanically supports and electrically connects electronic components using conductive tracks, pads and other features etched from copper sheets laminated on a non-conductive substrate. Components are soldered onto the PCB. It can significantly reduce both
the noise in the signal
and size
of the product.
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We drew the circuit diagram in the PCB designing software named DesignSpark. The schematic diagram here defined the ground wire, power port
and data port, allowing easy access and connection.
We further translated the schematic diagram to the PCB Design. Along the way, we found out that, some of the components does not comes with a standard footprint, so we have to customize them. The final product is a 4 layer PCB, with a size of 76.2 mm × 50.8
mm. After finishing the PCB layout, we sent it to factory for
manufacturing.
After 2 weeks of waiting, our PCB is finally arrived. We soldered all the electronic components onto it. In our PCB design, all wire terminals are located at the edge of the board so it is easier for connecting the wires.
Another round of testing is conducted on the PCB board. Similar to the breadboard, we can see a flat line going up and down, reversing direction at the switching potentials. However, the result obtained this time does contain much less noise and the graph is much clearer.