INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASURMENT

CHAPTER 4

SIGNAL CONDITIONING

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 4.1 Introduction
• Many applications require environment or structural measurements,
such as temperature and vibration, from sensors.

• These sensors, in turn, require signal conditioning before a data

acquisition device can effectively and accurately measure the signal.

• Key signal conditioning technologies provide distinct enhancements

to both the performance and accuracy of data acquisition systems.

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 Cont..

Figure 4.1 General structure of measurement system.

• The first component of a measurement system is the sensor that converts the physical
variable to be measured into an electrical quantity.
• However, the signal is usually in a format that cannot be directly used: it requires
‘conditioning’.
• Hence the second part of any measurement system is the signal conditioning component that
converts the electrical signal from an unsuitable format to a suitable format. 3
 4.1 Introduction
• Signal processing further modifies the signal to prepare it for
transmission.
• Signal conditioning element takes the output of the sensing element
and converts it into a form more suitable for further processing,
usually a d.c. voltage, d.c. current or frequency signal.
 Examples are:
• Deflection bridge which converts an impedance change into a voltage
change
• Amplifier which amplifies millivolts to volts
• Oscillator which converts an impedance change into a variable
frequency voltage. 4
 Signal Conditioning Processes
• Signal processing is concerned with improving the quality of the reading or signal at the output
of a measurement system, and one particular aim is to attenuate any noise in the measurement
signal that has not been eliminated by careful design of the measurement.
• However, signal processing performs many other functions apart from dealing with noise, and the
exact procedures that are applied depend on the nature of the raw output signal from a
measurement transducer.
Signal processing Procedures of:
• signal filtering,
• signal amplification,
• signal attenuation,
• signal linearization and bias removal are applied according to the form of
correction required in the raw signal. 5
 Signal Conditioning Operations

This figure shows Signal conditioning operations 6

 Signal conditioning processes
• Figure above shows various signal conditioning operations which are
being carried out in controlling a mechatronics based system.
• 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’.
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 CLASSIFICATION OF SIGNALS
• Signal means basically some information. The signals can be
characterized by various parameters. Let us now classify the signals
on the basis of these parameters.
a. Continuous time and discrete time signals:
• The signal can be a continuously varying value (amplitude) as a
function of time.
For example, the intensity of sunlight received at a particular place
varies continuously or the value of stock market index keeps on
fluctuating during the entire period of business or the speech signal
produced by us is also a continuously varying signal.

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 Fig. : Discrete Signal
b. Coded and uncoded signals:
• If communication were only between human beings and fact-to-face, the coding
of signal was not necessary. But when machines were employed for
communication coding became necessary.
• Generally, converting message into some other suitable form is
known as Coding. In fact, when we created numeric or alphabetic
characters, we actually used the coding concept.
• There are many different codes available for use. Most common codes use two
signal levels and therefore we refer to them as a binary system. 9
 CLASSIFICATION OF SIGNALS
• Coding is the process of transforming messages or signal in
accordance with definite rules.

• The code in the binary form can be represented by two levels high
and low, or ‘1’ and ‘0’, or mark and space as shown in Fig. below.

• The signal is in the form of a pulse train, with each pulse having
same time period.

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 Fig. Binary levels
• The pulses are called bits. Fig. above represents a seven bit code for
an event having a sequence 1011001. Since = 128, these 7 bits
could be arranged in 128 ways.
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Signal conditioning can include:
– Amplification,
– Attenuation,
– Linearization,
– Excitation,
– Filtering,
– Converting,
– Cold-Junction Compensation,
– Range matching,
– Bridge Completion
– Isolation and any other processes required to make sensor output suitable for
processing after conditioning.
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1. Amplification

• Amplifiers are necessary in order to amplify low-level signals, e.g.

thermocouple or strain gauge bridge output voltages, to a level which
enables them to be further processed.

• Because real-world signals are often very small in magnitude, signal

conditioning can improve the accuracy of your data.
• Amplifiers increase the level of the input signal to better match the
range of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC), thus increasing the
resolution and sensitivity of the measurement.
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• While many data acquisition (DAQ) devices include on board
amplifiers for this reason, many transducers, such a thermocouples,
require additional amplification.

• In addition, using external signal conditioners located closer to the

signal source, or transducer, improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the
measurement by boosting the signal level before it is affected by
environmental noise.

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• The operational amplifier can be regarded as the basic building block
for modern amplifiers. It is a high gain, integrated circuit amplifier
designed to amplify signals from d.c. up to many kHz.

• It is not normally used by itself but with external feedback networks

to produce precise transfer characteristics which depend almost
entirely on the feedback network.
• Usually there are two input terminals and one output terminal, the
voltage at the output terminal being proportional to the difference
between the voltages at the input
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Figure below shows a common amplifier configuration that is used to
amplify the small difference that may exist between two voltage signals
VA and VB. The output voltage Vo is given by:

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This figure shows Operational amplifier connected in differential amplification mode.
 2. Attenuation
• Attenuation is the opposite of amplification. It is necessary when the voltages to be
digitized are beyond the input range of the digitizer.
• This form of signal conditioning diminishes the amplitude of the input signal so
that the conditioned signal is within range of the ADC.
• Attenuation is necessary for measuring high voltages (more than 10 V).

• One method of attenuating signals by analogue means is to use a potentiometer

connected in a voltage-dividing circuit, as shown in Figure below. For the
potentiometer slider positioned a distance of x along the resistance element of total
length L, the voltage level of the processed signal is related to the voltage level
of the raw signal by the expression:
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This figure shows that Potentiometer in voltage-dividing circuit.

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 3. Isolation
• Improper grounding of the system is one of the most common causes
for measurement problems, including noise and damaged
measurement devices. Signal conditioners with isolation can prevent
most of these problems.
• Such devices pass the signal from its source to the measurement
device without a physical connection by using transformer, optical,
or capacitive coupling techniques.
• Besides breaking ground loops, isolation blocks high-voltage surges
and rejects high common-mode voltage and thus protects both the
operators and expensive measurement equipment.

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 4.Filtering
• Signal filtering consists of processing a signal to remove a certain
band of frequencies within it.
• The band of frequencies removed can be either at the low-
frequency end of the frequency spectrum, at the high-frequency end,
at both ends, or in the middle of the spectrum.
• Filters to perform each of these operations are known respectively
as low-pass filters, high-pass filters, band-pass filters and band-stop
filters (also known as notch filters).
• All such filtering operations can be carried out by either analogue or
digital methods.

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• The result of filtering can be readily understood if the analogy with a
procedure such as sieving soil particles is considered.
• Suppose that a sample of soil A is passed through a system of two
sieves of differing meshes such that the soil is divided into three
parts, B, C and D, consisting of large, medium and small particles, as
shown in Figure below. Suppose that the system also has a
mechanism for delivering one or more of the separated parts, B, C
and D, as the system output.
• If the graded soil output consists of parts C and D, the system is
behaving as a low-pass filter (rejecting large particles), whereas if it
consists of parts B and C, the system is behaving as a high pass filter
(rejecting small particles).
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• Other options are to deliver just part C (band-pass filter mode) or parts B and D
together (band-stop filter mode).
• As any gardener knows, however, such perfect sieving is not achieved in practice
and any form of graded soil output always contains a few particles of the wrong
size.

This figure shows Soil sieving

analogy of signal filtering.

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• Signal filtering consists of selectively passing or rejecting low-,
medium- and high frequency signals from the frequency spectrum of
a general signal.
• The range of frequencies passed by a filter is known as the pass-
band, the range not passed is known as the stop band, and the
boundary between the ranges is known as the cut-off frequency.
• To illustrate this, consider a signal whose frequency spectrum is
such that all frequency components in the frequency range from zero
to infinity have equal magnitude.
• If this signal is applied to an ideal filter, then the outputs for a low
pass filter, high-pass filter, band-pass filter and band-stop filter
respectively are shown in Figure above.
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• Note that for the latter two types, the bands are defined by a pair of
frequencies rather than by a single cut-off frequency.
• Just as in the case of the soil sieving analogy presented above, the
signal filtering mechanism is not perfect, with unwanted frequency
components not being erased completely but only attenuated by
varying degrees instead, i.e. the filtered signal always retains some
components (of a relatively low magnitude) in the unwanted
frequency range.
• There is also a small amount of attenuation of frequencies within the
pass-band that increases as the cut-off frequency is approached.
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• Figure above shows the typical output characteristics of a practical
constant-k (‘Constant-k’ is a term used to describe a common class
of passive filters) filter designed respectively for high pass, low-
pass, band-pass and band-stop filtering.
• Filter design is concerned with trying to obtain frequency rejection
characteristics that are as close to the ideal as possible. However,
improvement in characteristics is only achieved at the expense of
greater complexity in the design.
• The filter chosen for any given situation is therefore a compromise
between performance, complexity and cost.
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 5. Excitation
• Excitation is required for many types of transducers. For example,
strain gages, accelerometers thermistors, and resistance temperature
detectors (RTDs) require external voltage or current excitation.
• RTD and thermistor measurements are usually made with a current
source that converts the variation in resistance to a measurable
voltage.
• Accelerometers often have an integrated amplifier, which requires a
current excitation provided by the measurement device.
• Strain gages, which are very-low-resistance devices, typically are
used in a Wheatstone bridge configuration with a voltage excitation
source
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 6. Linearization
• Linearization is necessary when sensors produce voltage signals that
are not linearly related to the physical measurement.
• Linearization is the process of interpreting the signal from the sensor
and can be done either with signal conditioning or through software.
• Thermocouples are the classic example of a sensor that requires
linearization.
7. Cold-Junction Compensation
• Cold-junction compensation (CJC) is a technology required for
accurate thermocouple measurements.
• Thermocouples measure temperature as the difference in voltage
between two dissimilar metals.
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• Based on this concept, another voltage is generated at the connection
between the thermocouple and terminal of your data acquisition
device.
• CJC improves your measurement accuracy by providing the
temperature at this junction and
Thermocouples
• The most popular transducer for measuring temperature is the
thermocouple. The thermocouple is an inexpensive, rugged device
that can operate over a very wide range of temperatures.

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• However, the thermocouple has unique signal conditioning
requirements. A thermocouple operates on the principle that the
junction of two dissimilar metals generates a voltage that varies with
temperature. Measuring this voltage is difficult because connecting
the thermocouple to the terminals of a DAQ board creates what is
called the reference junction or cold junction, shown in Figure 4.2.
• These additional junctions act as thermocouples themselves and
produce their own voltages. Thus, the final measured voltage, ,
includes both the thermocouple and cold junction voltages. The
method used to compensate for these unwanted cold-junction
voltages is called cold-junction compensation.

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• This figure shows that The connection of thermocouple wires to a measurement
system creates an additional thermoelectric junction, called the cold junction, which
must be compensated for with signal conditioning. 33
• There are two general approaches to cold-junction compensation –
hardware and software compensation.
• Hardware compensation uses a special circuit that applies the
appropriate voltage to cancel the cold-junction voltage. Although you
need no software for hardware compensation, each thermocouple
type must have its own compensation circuit that works at all ambient
temperatures.
• Cold-junction compensation in software, on the other hand, is very
flexible and requires only knowing the ambient temperature. If you
use an additional sensor to directly measure the ambient temperature
at the cold junction, you can compute the appropriate compensation
for the unwanted thermoelectric voltages.
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• This approach is why many signal conditioning accessories are
equipped with direct-reading temperature sensors, such as thermistors
or semiconductor sensors. Software cold-junction compensation
follows this process:
1. Measure the temperature of the reference junction and compute the
equivalent thermocouple voltage for this junction using standard
thermocouple tables or polynomials.

2. Measure the output voltage ( ) and add-not subtract-the

reference-junction voltage computed in Step 1
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