Lecture 5 (Week 5)

EE305 Instrumentation and Measurement

Teaching Assistant Šejla Džakmić
Chapter 4
Calibration
 A comparison between a known measurement (the
standard) and the measurement by the instrument
 Comparing the output of the instrument under test
against the output of an instrument of known
accuracy, with the same input (measured quantity).
 Covering the whole measurement range
 Calibration improves the accuracy of the measuring
device
 Provided that calibrated instruments and sensors are
used in the same environmental conditions under
which they were calibrated.
 For different enviornmental conditions, appropriate
correction has to be made
 Null-type insturments are commonly used for
calibration duties (human operator is not a problem)
Calibration
Why do wee need it?

 The accuracy of all measuring devices degrade

over time
 Typically caused by mechanical wear, effects
of dirt, dust, fumes, chemicals and
temperature changes
 Depending on the type of the instrument and
the environment in which it is being used, it
may degrade very quickly or over a long period
of time.
 Magnitude of drift in characteristics depends
on:
 The amount of use an instruments receives
 The amount of wear
 The length of time it is sujected to operating
enivornment
Calibration
When do we need it?
 Some drift also occurs even in storage, by ageing effects
 Calibration has to be repeated at prescribed intervals
 When maximum possible measurement error is defined, the calibration time
interval can be calculated. Recalibrate at that time or earlier.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_lZCIA25aI
Chapter 5
Analog Signal Conditioning
 A sensor measures a variable by converting information of that variable into a
dependent signal of electrical or pneumatic nature.
 As we mentioned before, analog signal conditioning includes the operations
performed on signals to convert them to a form suitable for interfacing with
other elements.
 Procedures of signal filtering, signal amplification, attenuation, linearization
and bias removal are applied according to the form of correction required in
measured signal.
 Generally, digital signal processing is more accurate than mentioned analog
techniques, however, this advantage is greatly reduced in cases of analog
sensors and transducers.
 For such applications, we need analog-to-digital converters before applied
digital signal processing.
Analog Signal Conditioning
Analog Signal Filtering
 Processing a signl to remove a certain band of frequencies within it
 The band of frequencies removed can be either at:
 Low frequency end of the spectrum (Low-pass filter)
 High frequency end (High-pass filter)
 Both ends (Band-pass filter)
 In the middle of the spectrum (Band-stop/ band-reject filter)
 The range of frequencies passed by a filter is known as the pass-band
 The range of frequencies notpassed is known as stop-band
 The boundary between two ranges is known as cut-off frequnecy

The outputs from ideal filters

Analog Signal Conditioning
Analog Signal Filtering
Analog Signal Conditioning
Signal Amplification
 Carried out when typical signal output level of measurement transducer is
considered to be too low.
 An amplifier is a device for increasing the power of a signal by use of an external
energy source. In an electronic amplifier, the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a
current.
 Analog amplification is carried out by an operational amplifier or by a transistor
 Op amp is normally required to have high imput impedance so that its loading
effect on transducer output is minimzed.
 Transistors amplify current, for example they can be used to amplify the small
output current from a logic IC so that it can operate a lamp, relay or other high
current device.
 In many circuits a resistor is used to convert the changing current to a changing
voltage, so the transistor is being used to amplify voltage.
Analog Signal Conditioning
Signal Amplification - Transistors
 A transistor may be used as a switch (either fully on with
maximum current, or fully off with no current) and as an
amplifier (always partly on).
 The amount of current amplification is called the current
gain, symbol hFE
 Transistor circuit symbols There are two types of standard
transistors, NPN and PNP, with different circuit symbols.
 The letters refer to the layers of semiconductor material
used to make the transistor.
 Most transistors used today are NPN because this is the
easiest type to make from silicon.
 A Darlington pair is two transistors connected together to
give a very high current gain.
 In addition to standard (bipolar junction) transistors, there
are field-effect transistors which are usually referred to as
FETs. They have different circuit symbols and properties
Basic Transistor Operation

 Look at this one circuit as two separate

circuits, the base-emitter(left side)
circuit and the collector-emitter(right
side) circuit.
 Note that the emitter leg serves as a
conductor for both circuits.
 The amount of current flow in the base-
emitter circuit controls the amount of
current that flows in the collector
circuit. Small changes in base-emitter
current yields a large change in
collector-current.
Analog Signal Conditioning
Signal Amplification – Op-Amps
 Transistors created problems when used with DC inputs, that led to the
creation of Operational Amplifier.
 Operational amplifiers (op-amps) are very high gain dc coupled amplifiers
with differential inputs. One of the inputs is called the inverting input (-); the
other is called the non-inverting input. Usually there is a single output.
 Most op-amps operate from plus and minus supply voltages, which may or may
not be shown on the schematic symbol
+V

–
8
20 1 1
8 8
1 1 +
DIP DIP SMT SMT

–V
Operational Amplifier
 The important practical properties of Op Amp
 High input impedance
 Low output impedance
 High gain with open loop - uncontrolled
 Controlled gain with closed loop
 Bandwidth properties (differ according to type)
 These properties are used in designing the amplifier circuits of Op Amps
 Mainly we have two kind of op Amp amplifier circuits and many application
circuits can be driven from them:
 Inverting
 Non-inverting
Non-inverting Op-amp

 A non-inverting amplifier is a configuration in which the signal is on the non-

inverting input and a portion of the output is returned to the inverting input.
 Feedback forces Vf to be equal to Vin, hence Vin is across Ri.
 With basic algebra, you can show that the closed-loop gain of the non-
inverting amplifier is

+
Rf
Acl (NI)  1  Vout
Ri Vin –
Rf
Vf Feedback
circuit
Ri
Inverting Op-Amp
 An inverting amplifier is a configuration in which the non-inverting input is
grounded and the signal is applied through a resistor to the inverting input.
 Feedback forces the inputs to be nearly identical; hence the inverting input is
very close to 0 V. The closed-loop gain of the inverting amplifier is

Rf
Acl (I)    A special case of the inverting amplifier is
Ri when Rf =0 and Ri = ∞. This forms a voltage
Rf follower or unity gain buffer with a gain of 1.
 The input impedance of the voltage follower
is very high, producing an excellent circuit
Ri
for isolating one circuit from another, which
–
avoids "loading" effects.
Vout
Vin + Vin +
Vout
–

0 V (virtual ground)
Negative feedback

 Negative feedback is the process of returning a portion of the output signal

to the input with a phase angle that opposes the input signal.

 The advantage of negative feedback is that precise values of amplifier gain

can be set. In addition, bandwidth and input and output impedances can be
controlled.

Vin +
Vout

Vf –

Internal inversion makes Vf

180° out of phase with Vin.

Negative
feedback
circuit
Instrumentation Amplifier

 It consists of a circuit containing three

standard operational amplifiers
 The advantage of the instrumentation
amplifier compared with a standard
operational amplifier is that its differential
input impedance is much higher.
 In consequence, its common mode rejection
capability is much better.
 This means that, if a twisted wire pair is used
to connect a transducer to the differential
inputs of the amplifier, any induced noise will
contaminate each wire equally and will be
rejected by the common mode rejection
capacity of the amplifier.
Differential Amplifier

 A common amplifier configuration that is

used to amplify the small difference that
may exist between two voltage signals VA
and VB.
 These may represent, for example, the
pressures either side of an obstruction
device put in a pipe to measure the
volume flow rate of fluid flowing through
it.
 The output voltage V0 is given by:
Differential Amplifier
 A differential amplifier is also very useful for removing common mode noise
voltages. Suppose VA and VB are signal wires such that 𝑉𝐴 = ±𝑉𝑠 volts and
𝑉𝐵 = 0 volts.
 The inputs to the amplifier V1 and V2 and the output V0 can then be written
as:

 Hence:

𝑅4 𝑅3
 If the resistance values are chosen carefully such that = 𝑅1, then equation
𝑅2
simplifies to:
4 – 20 mA Transmitters

 Before electronics improved, pneumatic signals (pressure) was used for

sending and receiving measurement information (more details about
pneumatic signals and transmitters are discussed in another course)
 After the improvements in the field of electronics, 4 – 20 mA standard
was applied in most of industries for measurement and control
applications.
 The trends now to move to digital (wired and wireless) signals (again
digital signals are discussed in another course)
 The idea is to send a standard signal between 4 - 20 mA, with the limits
of the measured physical variable.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWA3srlVwnw
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v9ZCD3oL1M
Hints:
 Check the recomended book 2 from the syllabus:
 Process Control Instrumentation Technology Curtis D. Johnson Eighth Edition
 If you have any questions feel free to contact me