CHAPTER - 4

SIGNAL CONDITIONING AND DATA TRANSMISSION

INTRODUCTION TO SIGNAL CONDITIONING:

The “first stage” of the instrumentation or measurement system which detects the
measurand (which is basically a physical quantity) is termed as detector-transducer stage. In
this stage, in most of the cases, the quantity is detected and is transduced into an electrical form.
The output from the first stage needs certain modifications before it becomes compatible
with the data presentation stage. The necessary modification is carried out in the “intermediate
stage”, more commonly referred to as the signal conditioning stage.
The “last stage” of the measurement system may consist of indicating, recording,
displaying, data processing elements or may consist of control elements.
 Measurement of dynamic mechanical quantities places special requirements on the
elements in the signal conditioning stage.
Large amplifications, as well good transient response are often desired both of which are
difficult to obtain by mechanical hydraulic or pneumatic methods. Consequently, electrical or
electronic elements are usually required.
Limitations/disadvantages of mechanical amplification:
In the field of dynamic measurements, strictly, mechanical systems are much more
uncommon than they were in the years past, largely because of several inherent disadvantages.
Mechanical amplification by the elements such as linkages, gearing or cams (These elements
present design problems of immense magnitudes particularly if dynamic inputs are to be
handled) is quite limited because of the following reasons:
1. When amplification is required frictional forces are also amplified, resulting in
considerable undesirable signal loading. These effects, coupled with backlash and elastic
deformations, result in poor response.
2. Initial loading results in reduced frequency response and in certain cases, depending on
the particular configuration of the system, phase response are also a problem.
Advantages of electrical signal conditioning:
In several detector-transducer combinations which provide an output in electrical form,
it is convenient to perform further signal conditioning electrically.
 Such conditioning may typically include:
- Converting resistance changes to voltage changes
- Subtracting offset voltages
- Increasing signal voltages
- Removing unwanted frequency components
 Electrical methods are also preferred for their ease of power amplification.
- Additional power may be fed into the system to provide a greater output power than
input by the use of “power amplifiers”, which have no important mechanical
counterpart in most instrumentation.
SIGNAL CONDITIONING INSTRUMENTS:
The signal conditioning equipment may be required to perform the following functions on
the transduced signal:
1. Amplification
2. Modification or modulation

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3. Impedance matching
4. Data processing
5. Data transmission
1. Amplification: It means enhancement of the signal level which is often in the low level range.
The amplification system must bring the level of transducer signal to a value adequate enough
to make it useful for conversion, processing, indicating and recording.
2. Modification or modulation: It means to change the form of signal. The signal may be
smoothened, linearised, filtered or converted into digital form.
3. Impedance matching: The signal conditioning equipment arranges the input and output
impedances of the matching device so as to prevent loading of the transducer and to maintain a
high signal level at the recorder.
4. Data processing: To carry out mathematical operations (e.g., addition, subtraction,
differentiation, integration etc.) before indication or recording of data.
5. Data transmission: To transmit signal from one location to another without changing the
contents of the information.
The whole task of signal conditioning requires the following.
- Ingenuity
- Proper selection of components
- Faithful reproduction of signal
 The elements of signal conditioning are designed in such a fashion as to be insensitive to
all extraneous inputs. The accuracy, range and dynamic response are all designed to be
compatible with the detector transducer.
 In several situations the “signal conditioning” or “data acquisition equipment” is an
excitation and amplification system for passive transducers. It may be an amplification system
for active transducers. In both the applications, the transducer output is brought upto adequate
level to make it useful for conversion, processing, indicating and recording.
- In case of “passive transducers” (e.g., strain gauges, potentiometer resistance
thermometers inductive and capacitive transducers) excitation is needed because these
transducers do not generate their own voltage or current; the excitation is provided from
external sources.
- The “active transducers” (e.g., technogenerators, thermocouples, inductive pick-
up and piezoelectric crystals) do not require excitation from an external source since they
produce their own electrical output. However. These signals have a low voltage level and as
such they need to be amplified.
The excitation sources may be:
 D.C. voltage source
 A.C. voltage source
 D.C. signal conditioning system:
The resistance transducers like strain gauges constitute one or more than one arm of a
Wheatstone bridge which is excited by an isolated D.C. source. The bridge can be balanced by a
potentiometer and can also be calibrated for unbalanced conditions.
Characteristics of a D.C. amplifier:
1. It should have extremely good thermal and long term stability
2. It may require balanced differential inputs giving high mode rejection ratio (CMRR);
CMRR is a measure of ratio of desired signal to undesired signal, this value should be as
high as possible.

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D.C. signal conditioning system

Advantage:
1. D.C. amplifier is easy to calibrate at low frequencies
2. It is able to recover from an overload condition unlike its. A.C. counterpart.
Disadvantages:
1. The major disadvantages of D.C. amplifier are that it suffers from the problem of drift.
As a result, the low frequency spurious signals come out as data information. This
problem is overcome by the use of the drift amplifiers.
2. The D.C. amplifier is followed by a lowpass filter which eliminates high frequency
components or noise from the data signal.
 A.C. signal conditioning system:
The problems which are encountered in D.C. systems are overcome through carrier type
A.C. signal conditioning system.
The transducer parameter variations amplitude modulates the carrier frequencies at the
bridge output and the waveform is amplified and demodulated. The demodulation is phase
sensitive so that polarity of D.C. output indicates the direction of the parameter change in the
bridge output.
In carrier systems, it is very easy to obtain very high rejection of mains frequency pick-
up.
 Active filters can be used to reject this frequency and prevent overloading of A.C.
amplifier.
 The carrier frequency components of the data signal are filtered out by the phase-
sensitive demodulators.
Uses: A.C. systems are used for variable reactance transducers and for systems where signals
have to be transmitted long via cables to connect the transducers to the signal conditioning
equipment.

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 The physical quantities like pressure, temperature, acceleration, strain etc, after having
being transduced into their analogous electrical form and amplified to sufficient current
or voltage levels (say 1 to 10V) are further processed by electronic circuits.
 The signal is some applications, does not need any further processing and the amplified
signal may be directly applied to indicating or recording or control instruments.
 Several applications, however, involve further processing of signals which involve linear
and non-linear operations.

A.C. signal conditioning system

WHEATSTONE BRIDGE:
A Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical
resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown
component. The primary benefit of a wheatstone bridge is its ability to provide extremely
accurate measurements (in contrast with something like a simple voltage divider). Its operation
is similar to the original potentiometer.
The Wheatstone bridge was invented by Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833 and improved and
popularized by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1843. One of the Wheatstone bridge's initial uses was
for the purpose of soils analysis and comparison.
Operation:
In the figure, Rx is the unknown resistance to be measured; R 1, R2 and R3 are resistors of
known resistance and the resistance of R2 is adjustable. If the ratio of the two resistances in the
known leg (R2/R1) is equal to the ratio of the two in the unknown leg (R x/R3), then the voltage
between the two midpoints (B and D) will be zero and no current will flow through the
galvanometer (Vg). If the bridge is unbalanced, the direction of the current indicates whether R 2
is too high or too low. R2 is varied until there is no current through the galvanometer, which
then reads zero.

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Detecting zero current with a galvanometer can be done to extremely high precision.
Therefore, if R1, R2 and R3 are known to high precision, then Rx can be measured to high
precision. Very small changes in Rx disrupt the balance and are readily detected.
At the point of balance, the ratio of

Alternatively, if R1, R2 and R3 are known, but R2 is not adjustable, the voltage difference across
or current flow through the meter can be used to calculate the value of R x, using Kirchhoff's
circuit laws. This setup is frequently used in strain gauge and resistance thermometer
measurements, as it is usually faster to read a voltage level off a meter than to adjust a
resistance to zero the voltage.
AMPLIFIERS:
An amplifier is a device which is used to increase or augment the weak signal. It may
operate on mechanical (levers, gears etc.) optical, pneumatic and hydraulic or electrical and
electronic principles.
The ratio of output signal (Io) to input signal (Ii) for an amplifier is termed as gain,
amplification or magnification. The gain or amplification (G) is expressed as:

Since [Io/Ii] is in the same units, the gain G is a dimensionless quantity.

Invariably, in order to get greater magnification, two or more amplifiers are arranged in
series/cascades. The overall gain of the arrangement (assuming that no loading occurs) is given
by the product of individual gains of the amplifying units.

i.e..,
Types of amplifiers:
The amplifiers on the basis of principle of working, may be categorized as follows:
1. Mechanical amplifiers
2. Fluid amplifiers

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3. Optical amplifiers
4. Electrical and electronic amplifiers
1. Mechanical Amplifiers:
The mechanical amplifiers may be further classified as follows:
(i) Simple and compound levers:
The compound lever has two or more levers linked together so that output from one
lever provides the input to the other.
(ii) Simple and compound gears:
The simple and compound gear trains are used quite frequently to provide mechanical
amplification of either angular displacement or rotary speed.
A “compound gear train” gives greater modification with the additional advantage of no
change in the direction of input signal.
Limitations of mechanical amplification:
The mechanical amplification, as earlier stated, usually suffers from the errors caused by the
following factors.
 Internal loading
 Friction at the mating parts
 Elastic deformation
 Backlash.
2. Fluid Amplifiers:
Fluid amplifiers may be classified as follows:
(i) Hydraulic amplifier:
When a small displacement is applied to a piston operating inside a cylinder containing
some liquid, there occurs a large displacement of the liquid in the output tube which has a small
diameter.
Example: This principle is employed in the mercury-in-glass thermometer and the single-column
manometers.
(ii) Pneumatic amplifier:
Pneumatic methods are extensively used and can be applied to any type of measurement.
3. Optical Amplifiers:
In optical amplification, a ray of light strikes a mirror with an angle of incidence ‘i’ and
gets reflected with angle of reflection equal to the angle of incidence. When the mirror rotates
through an angles , the angle of incidence change to (i + ). Before rotation of the minor, the
angle between the incident ray and reflected ray is 2i and after rotation it is 2(i+). Obviously
there is angular magnification of 2 between the incident and reflected rays. In order to get a
greater magnification, more number of mirrors surface may be used.
Example: This principle to amplify the input signals is used in the following cases:
 Optical levers
 U.V galvanometers
 Mechanical – pointer galvanometers
4. Electrical and Electronic amplifiers:
The electrical amplifiers are used to increase the magnitude of weak voltage or current
signals resulting from electromechanical transducers.
(i) Desirable Characteristics of Electronic Amplifiers:

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The following are the desirable characteristics of electronic amplifiers

 High input impedance so that its loading effect on the transducer in minimum
 Low output impedance so that the amplifier is not unduly loaded by the display or
recording device
 Frequency response should be as good as that of the transducer.
(ii) Electronic Amplification or Gain:
The following are the several generalities that can be listed for the ideal (but non-existent)
electronic amplifier:
 Infinite gain (lower gain can be obtained by adding attenuation circuits)
 Infinite input impedance; no input current, hence no load on the previous stage or
device.
 Zero output impedance (low noise)
 Instant response (wide frequency bandwidth)
 Zero output for zero input
 Ability to ignore or reject extraneous inputs.
Of course, none of these aims can be completely realized, it is often possible to approach
them and their assumption simplifies circuit analysis.
 In an electronic amplifier, separate power is provided so that the output power may
exceed the input if that is required.
Here,
If the vi = Input voltage
ii = Input current
vo = Output voltage
io = Output current

Then:

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(iii) A.C. and D.C. Amplifiers:

The instrumentation systems usually employ the following two types of electronic
amplifiers.
1. A.C. coupled amplifiers
2. D.C. coupled amplifiers
 For an “A.C. amplifier” bandwidth is the range of frequencies between gain or amplitude
ratio is constant to within -3dB (3dB down points). This corresponding to the frequencies at
which the voltage output amplitude falls by 29.3% to 70.7% of the maximum value.
- The “A.C. amplifier” is only capable of dealing with rapid, repetitive signals but is
usually simpler and cheaper when compared with their D.C. counterparts.
- In an “A.C. amplifier system” the amplifier drift and spurious noise are not
significant; the mains frequency pick – up rejection is very high.
 The “D.C. amplifiers” are capable of amplifying static, slowly changing or rapid – repetitive
input signals.
- The “D.C. amplifiers systems” are easy to calibrate at low frequencies and have the
ability to recover rapidly from overload conditions.
(iv) Modulated and Unmodulated Signals:
The measurands may be “pure” in the sense that analog electrical signal contains
nothing more than the real time variation of the measurand information itself.
On the other hand, the signal may be “mixed” with a carrier which consists of a voltage
oscillation at some frequency higher than that of the signal. A common rule of thumb is that the
frequency ratio should be at least 10:1.
The measurand affects that carrier by varying either its amplitude or its frequency:
- In the former case the carrier frequency is held constant and its amplitude is varied by
the measurand. This process is known as Amplitude modulation (AM).
- In the latter case the carrier amplitude is held constant and its frequency is varied by the
measurand. This is known as Frequency modulation (FM)
The most familiar use of AM and FM transfer of signals is in AM and FM radio broadcasting.
When “modulation” is used in instrumentation “amplitude modulation” (AM) is the more
common form.
- Nearly any mechanical signal from a passive pick – up can be transduced into an
analogous AM form. Sensors based on either inductance (e.g. differential transformer) or
capacitances (e.g. capacitance pickup for liquid level) require an A.C. excitation.
In addition, however, resistance – type sensors may also use an A.C. excitation, as with
some strain gauge circuits.
- More commonly, The mixed signal and carrier are “demodulated” by “rectification
and filtering”

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 FM demodulation is more complex operation and may be accomplished through the use
of
- Frequency discrimination
- Ratio detection
- IC phase-locked loops.
ATTENUATORS:
An attenuator is a two – part resistive network and is used to reduce the signal level by a
given amount.
In a number of applications, it is necessary to introduce a specified loss between the
source and a matched load without altering the impedance relationship. Attenuators may be
used for this purpose.
Attenuator may be symmetrical or asymmetrical and can be either fixed or variable. A
fixed attenuator with constant attenuation is called a pad.
- Variable attenuators are used as control volumes in radio broadcasting sections.
- Attenuators are also used in laboratory to obtain small value of voltage or current
for testing circuits.
The attenuation is expressed in decibels (dB) or, in ‘naper’. The attenuation offered by a
network in decibels is given by:

FILTERS:
Filtering is the process of attenuating unwanted components of a measurement while
permitting the desired component to pass.
The filter is an electronic circuit which can pass or stop a particular band of frequencies
through it. The filters were first designed by G.A. Campbell and D.Z. Zobel at Bell laboratories.
The band of frequencies which will pass through filter is called the pass band and the
band of all remaining frequencies is called attenuation band. In case of ideal filter, all
frequencies of pass band will pass without suffering from any attenuation while the band of all
remaining frequencies of attenuation band will be suppressed completely.
Classification of filters:
The filters may be classified as follows:
A. On the basis of passing and attenuating of frequencies:
1. Low pass filters:
 These are those filters which pass only low frequencies through them and which
reject all high frequencies above the cut – off frequencies.
 A low pass filter is also called “lag network” because it causes a phase lag in the
output signal.
 This type of filter is also called “integrating network”.
2. High pass filters:

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 These are those filters which pass only high frequencies through them and which
reject all high frequencies below the cut – off frequency.
 The high pass filter is a differentiating network and is also called as “lead network”
because it will cause a phase lead in the output signal.
3. Band pass filters:
 These are those filters which pass a band of frequencies through them and which
reject all other frequencies to pass through them.
4. Band stop filters:
 These filters, which are also known as “band elimination filters” are those which
reject a band of frequencies to pass through them and which allow the other
frequencies to pass through them.

B. On the basis of relation between series and shunt impedances:

i. Constant filters (or prototype filters):In this filter the series impedance z1 and stunt
impedance z2 are interrelated by the relation:
z1 z2 = k2
Where, ‘k’ is a constant independent of frequency.
ii. m – derived filters: These filters do not have the product of series and shunt impedances
equal to k2, but have the same characteristic impedance as the corresponding ‘k’ section,
with sharper attenuation characteristic.

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