Design of liquid level detection circuit based on sampling probe structure capacitance

Abstract

Liquid level detection system is an essential core functional component of automatic clinical medical testing instrument. The conventional liquid level detection method has low detection accuracy and sensitivity, and may have the problem of false detection, which may lead to the inaccurate test results. This paper presents a high sensitivity liquid level detection system based on the principle of variable capacitance. When the sampling probe contacts the liquid level, the probe capacitance will change. The liquid level detection circuit board judges whether the probe contacts the liquid level by sensing the change of probe capacitance. When judging the liquid level signal, the combination of slope detection and amplitude detection is used. The liquid level detection circuit board takes the phase-locked loop(PLL) circuit as the center to detect the change of the capacitance. The reference signal of the PLL is set as a square wave of 375kHz. The double tube probe is used as a part of the tuning capacitor of the voltage controlled oscillator to control the frequency of the output signal, which can realize the rapid phase locking. The experimental results show that the system has accurate detection results, high sensitivity, stable and reliable operation, good dynamic response performance in the case of large and small liquid volume. Compared with other liquid level detection methods based on machine vision, ultrasonic, optics and so on, the proposed liquid level detection system has simpler structure and lower cost, it can avoid the problems of collision, carryover contamination and empty suction by controlling the depth of sampling needle inserted into liquid.