Instrumentation Amplifier

The electrical transducer produce very low level output signal which often require to
be amplified before further processing and this task is usually get accomplish by use
of instrumentation amplifier.

What is an Instrumentation Amplifier?

An instrumentation amplifier is used to amplify very low-level signals, rejecting noise
and interference signals.
Examples can be heartbeats, blood pressure, temperature, earthquakes and so on.

Therefore, the essential characteristics of a good instrumentation amplifier are as

follows.

 Inputs to the instrumentation amplifiers will have very low signal energy.
Therefore the instrumentation amplifier should have high gain and should be
accurate.
 The gain should be easily adjustable using a single control.
 It must have High Input Impedance and Low Output Impedance to prevent
loading.
 The Instrumentation amplifier should have High CMRR since the transducer
output will usually contain common mode signals such as noise when
transmitted.
 It must also have a High Slew Rate to handle sharp rise times of events and
provide a maximum undistorted output voltage swing.

Instrumentation Amplifier using Op Amp

Instrumentation amplifiers are a combination of three op-amps that are typically

grouped into two stages. The first two op-amps comprise the first stage and each is a
non-inverting amplifier. The second stage is a differential amplifier that may or may
not have unity gain.

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Figure 1. Schematic diagram of an Instrumentation Amplifier

 The value of voltage gain of this device is adjusted with the use of exterior resistances.in
this circuit configuration, the operational amplifier denoted as A1 and A2 are in a non-
inverting arrangement that offers large value impedance and voltage gain.
 The operational amplifier denoted as A3 is working as a unity gain differential amplifier
that has largely precise resistances which has values (R3 = R4 = R5 = R6).
 The gain setting resistance is linked eternally you can see in the below figure. The circuit
configuration of this module is shown in the below figure.

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Working principle

An instrumentation amplifier allows you to change its gain by varying one resistor value, RG,
with the rest of the resistor values being equal (R), such that:

Consider a simplified case;

In which all resistors are the same (except R gain ) and V ref =0

The analysis …………………………………

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In Figure above, let R = 10 kΩ , v1 = 2.011 V, and v2 = 2.017 V. If RG is
adjusted to 500 Ω, determine: (a) the voltage gain, (b) the output voltage vo.

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The below figure explains this process.

Simulation Instrumentation Amplifier ……. Ref ….

Certain Instrumentation Amplifier

 Till now we have discussed the basics of the instrumentation amplifier now we discuss
the certain component AD622 which is shown in the below figure.

 In this figure, the pinout numbers of integrated circuits are mentioned for reference.

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  The structure of the instrumentation amplifier comprises of 3 operational amplifiers
which we have seen in first figure.
 Some parameters of this module are described here.
 The value of voltage gain be set from two to one thousand with the use of outer resistance
denoted as RG.
 The gain is unity having the absence of outer resistance.
 the value of input impedance is ten Giga ohm.
 The value of common-mode rejection or CMRR is least value of sixty-six decibels.
 If the value of the common-mode rejection ratio is larger than the rejection of common-
mode voltage is of high quality.
 The bandwidth is AD622 is eight kilohertz having gain of ten and slew rate of 1.2 volts
per milliseconds.

Adjustment of Voltage Gain for AD622

 To get value of voltage gain larger than the unity there is outer resistance is used as
shown in the below figure.

 The resistance is linked with the pinouts one and eight. There is no need of resistance for
unity.
 The value of RG is chosen for the resultant gain according to this formula.
 RG = 50.5 kΩ/(Av – 1)

Gain vs Frequency

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  The graph shown in below figure indicates how the value of gain changes according to
the frequency for the gain value of one, ten, hundred and thousand.
 From the graph you can see that the bandwidth reduces with the gain increment.

The applications of Instrumentation Amplifier are:

 They are used extensively in Bio-medical applications like ECG’s and EEG’s.
 Instrumentation amplifiers are used in data acquisition from small o/p
transducers like thermocouples etc.
 Instrumentation Amplifiers are used where long-term stability is essential like
Industrial applications that includes automation.
 Instrumentation amplifiers are incorporated with pressure transducers in Weighing
Systems to monitor various physical quantities such as weight, force, pressure,
displacement and torque.
 These amplifiers are used for imaging as well as video data acquisition in the
conditioning of high-speed signal.

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  These amplifiers are used in RF cable systems for amplification of the high-
frequency signal.

Bio-medical applications like ECG’s