Instrumentation and Measurement

CHAPTER SIX- SIGNAL CONDITIONING AND CONVERSION

Instrumentation and Measurement

 Amplifiers
 Oscillators and Filters

Outlines

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  In the previous slides we have studied various sensors and
transducers used in a mechatronics system.
 Transducers sense physical phenomenon such as rise in temperature
and convert the measurand into an electrical signal viz. voltage or
current.
 However these signals may not be in their appropriate forms to
employ them to control a mechatronics system.
Signal  Figure shows various signal conditioning operations which are being
carried out in controlling a mechatronics based system.
Conditioning
Devices

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 The signals given by a transducer may be nonlinear in nature or may
contain noise. Thus before sending these signals to the mechatronics
control unit it is essential to remove the noise, nonlinearity associated
with the raw output from a sensor or a transducer. It is also needed to
modify the amplitude (low/high) and form (analogue/digital) of the
output signals into respective acceptable limits and form which will be
suitable to the control system.
 These activities are carried out by using signal conditioning devices and
the process is termed as ‘signal conditioning’.
 Signal conditioning system enhances the quality of signal coming from
a sensor in terms of:
1. Protection
 To protect the damage to the next element of mechatronics system
such microprocessors from the high current or voltage signals.
2. Right type of signal
 To convert the output signal from a transducer into the desired
form i.e. voltage / current

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3. Right level of the signal
• To amplify or attenuate the signals to a right /acceptable level for
the next element.
4. Noise
• To eliminate noise from a signal.
5. Manipulation
• To manipulate the signal from its nonlinear form to the linear
form.

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 1. Amplification/Attenuation
 Various applications of Mechatronics system such as machine tool
control unit of a CNC machine tool accept voltage amplitudes in
range of 0 to 10 Volts.
 However many sensors produce signals of the order of milli volts.
 This low level input signals from sensors must be amplified to use
them for further control action.
Amplification/Att  Operational amplifiers (op-amp) are widely used for amplification of
enuation input signals.
 Operational Amplifier is a basic and an important part of a signal
conditioning system. It is often abbreviated as op-amp. Op-amp is a
high gain voltage amplifier with a differential input. The gain is of
the order of 100000 or more.
 Differential input is a method of transmitting information with two
different electronic signals which are generally complementary to
each other. F
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  Voltage Comparator
• digitize input

 Voltage Follower
• buffer
Basic
Operational
Amplifier  Non-Inverting Amp • Inverting Amp

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 Summing Amp

 Differential Amp

 Integrating Amp

 Differentiating Amp

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 Current-to-Voltage

 Voltage-to-Current

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 input stage
 Robust differential gain stage
gain amplifier

 Input stage
• high input impedance
• buffers gain stage
• no common mode gain total differential gain
Instrumentation • can have differential gain
2 R2  R1  R4 
Gd   
Amplifier  Gain stage
R1  R3 
• differential gain, low input impedance

 Overall amplifier
• amplifies only the differential component
• high common mode rejection ratio
• high input impedance suitable for biopotential electrodes
with high output impedance
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Instrumentation
Amplifier with
Filter

instrumentation amplifier HPF non-inverting am

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  Most electrical filters are circuits that select certain bands
of frequencies to pass along, or accept, and other bands of
frequencies to stop, or reject.
 The frequency at which the transition between passing and
rejecting input signals occurs is called the “cutoff”
frequency, often abbreviated as fC
 Filters are generally classified as passive and active filters.
 The major difference between active and passive filter is
Filter that an active filter uses active components like transistor
and op-amp for the filtering of electronic signals in addition
to capacitor and resistor.
 As against, a passive filter uses passive components like
resistor, inductor and capacitor to generate a signal of a
particular band.

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A popular application uses op-amps to build active filter
circuits. A filter circuit can be constructed using passive
components: resistors and capacitors.
 An active filter additionally uses an amplifier to provide
voltage amplification and signal isolation or buffering.
A filter that provides a constant output from dc up to a cutoff
frequency fOH and then passes no signal above that frequency
is called an ideal low-pass filter.
A filter that provides or passes signals above a cutoff
frequency fOL is a high-pass filter.
 When the filter circuit passes signals that are above one
ideal cutoff frequency and below a second cutoff frequency, it
is called a band pass filter.

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Instrumentation and
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 A first-order, low-pass filter using a single resistor and
capacitor has a practical slope of -20 dB per decade.
The voltage gain below the cutoff frequency is
constant.

Low-Pass Filter

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High-Pass Active
Filter

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 Figure shows a band pass filter using two stages, the
first a high-pass filter and the second a low-pass filter,
the combined operation being the desired band pass
response.

Bandpass Filter

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 An oscillator is a circuit which produces a continuous, repeated,
alternating waveform without any input.
Oscillators basically convert unidirectional current flow from a DC
source into an alternating waveform which is of the desired frequency,
as decided by its circuit components.
The basic principle behind the working of oscillators can be
understood by analyzing the behavior of an LC tank circuit.
Oscillators Consider the capacitor C pre charged. Here, at first, the capacitor
starts to discharge via the inductor, which results in the conversion of
its electrical energy into the electromagnetic field, which can be
stored in the inductor. Once the capacitor discharges completely,
there will be no current flow in the circuit.

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However, by then, the stored electromagnetic field would have
generated a back-emf which results in the flow of current through the
circuit in the same direction as that of before.
This current flow through the circuit continues until the
electromagnetic field collapses which result in the back-conversion of
electromagnetic energy into electrical form, causing the cycle to
repeat.
However, now the capacitor would have charged with the opposite
polarity, due to which one gets an oscillating w
However, the oscillations which arise due to the inter-
conversion between the two energy-forms cannot continue
forever as they would be subjected to the effect of energy loss
due to the resistance of the circuit. As a result, the amplitude of
these oscillations decreases steadily to become zero, which
makes them damped in nature. aveform as the output.

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This indicates that in order to obtain the oscillations which are
continuous and of constant amplitude, one needs to compensate for
the energy loss.
Nevertheless, it is to be noted that the energy supplied should be
precisely controlled and must be equal to that of the energy lost in
order to obtain the oscillations with constant amplitude.

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Practically, the oscillators are networks of amplifier circuits which are
provided with a positive or regenerative feedback wherein a part of
the output signal is fed back to the input.
 Here the amplifier consists of an amplifying active element which
can be a transistor or an Op-Amp and the back-fed in-phase signal is
held responsible to keep-up (sustain) the oscillations by making-up for
the losses in the circuit.

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Thank You

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