AUTHOR=Harvie Andrew J. , de Mello John C. TITLE=OLIA: An open-source digital lock-in amplifier JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sensors VOLUME=4 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sensors/articles/10.3389/fsens.2023.1102176 DOI=10.3389/fsens.2023.1102176 ISSN=2673-5067 ABSTRACT=

The Open Lock-In Amplifier (OLIA) is a microcontroller-based digital lock-in amplifier built from a small number of inexpensive and easily sourced electronic components. Despite its small credit card-sized form-factor and low build-cost of around US$35, OLIA is a capable instrument that offers many features associated with far costlier commercial devices. Key features include dual-phase lock-in detection at multiple harmonic frequencies up to 50 kHz, internal and external reference modes, adjustable levels of input gain, a choice between low-pass filtering and synchronous filtering, noise estimation, and a comprehensive programming interface for remote software control. OLIA comes with an optional optical breakout board that allows noise-tolerant optical detection down to the 40-pW level. OLIA and its breakout board are released here as open hardware, with technical diagrams, full parts-lists, and source-code for the firmware.