Introduction to signal processing

• Signal processing is concerned with improving

the quality of the reading or signal at the
output of a measurement system

• One particular aim is to attenuate any noise in

the measurement signal that has not been
eliminated by careful design of the
measurement system
• The exact procedures that are applied in signal
processing depend on the nature of the raw
output signal from a measurement transducer

• These procedures of signal filtering, signal

amplification, signal attenuation, signal
linearization and bias removal etc are applied
based on the form of correction required in
the raw signal
• Traditionally, signal processing has been carried
out by analogue techniques. Common analog
processing elements include capacitors, resistors
and inductors and transistors or opamps.

• Signal processing has increasingly been carried

out digitally, using software modules to condition
the input measurement data

• Digital signal processing is inherently more

accurate than analogue techniques. It involves
the use of micro processor chips
• Digital signal processing is inherently more accurate
than analogue techniques, but this advantage is
greatly reduced in the case of measurements coming
from analogue sensors and transducers, because an
analogue-to-digital conversion stage is necessary
before the digital processing can be applied, thereby
introducing conversion errors.

• Also, analogue processing remains the faster of the

two alternatives in spite of recent advances in the
speed of digital signal processing.
• Some preliminary analogue processing is often
carried out even when the major part of the
processing is carried out digitally
 Analogue signal processing
signal 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

• All such filtering operations can be carried out by either analogue or

digital methods
• 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.
• The boundary between the two ranges is known as
the cut-off frequency.
• In the majority of measurement situations, the physical
quantity being measured has a value that is either
constant or only changing slowly with time.

• In these circumstances, the most common types of

signal corruption are high-frequency noise
components, and the type of signal processing element
required is a low-pass filter.

• In a few cases, the measured signal itself has a high

frequency, for instance when mechanical vibrations are
being monitored, and the signal processing required is
the application of a highpass filter to attenuate low-
frequency noise components.
 Passive analogue filters
• The very simplest passive filters are circuits that consist
only of inductors and capacitors

• Unfortunately, these only have a mild filtering effect. This is

adequate for circuits like tone controls in radio receivers

• However they are unsuitable for the sort of signal

processing requirements met in most measurement
applications
Circuit components for passive filter T-
sections.
 Active analogue filters
• In passive filters, the two main difficulties noted were
those of obtaining resistance-less inductors and
achieving proper matching between signal source and
load through the filter sections

• A further problem is that the inductors required by

passive filters are bulky and relatively expensive

• Active filters overcome all of these problems and so

they are now used more commonly than passive filters
 Major component of active filter
• The major component in an active filter is an
electronic amplifier

• The filter characteristics are defined by amplifier

input and feedback components that consist of
resistors and capacitors but not inductors

• The fact that the necessary characteristics can be

obtained using only resistors and capacitors,
without requiring inductors, is a particular
advantage of this class of filters
 Other analogue signal processing
operations
• Signal amplification
• Signal attenuation
• Signal linearization
• Zero bias removal
• Signal integration
• Voltage comparator etc..
• Signal Addition
• Signal Multiplication
• Lock-in Amplifier
• Phase sensitive detector
 Signal amplification
• Signal amplification is carried out when the typical signal output
level of a measurement transducer is considered to be too low

• Amplification by analogue means is carried out by an operational

amplifier

• This is normally required to have a high input impedance so that its

loading effect on the transducer output signal is minimized

• In some circumstances, such as when amplifying the output signal

from accelerometers and some optical detectors, the amplifier
must also have a high-frequency response, to avoid distortion of
the output reading
 Signal attenuation
• One method of attenuating signals by
analogue means is to use a potentiometer
connected in a voltage-dividing circuit

• Unfortunately, the potentiometer is

unsuitable as a signal attenuator when it is
followed by devices or circuits with a relatively
low impedance.
• In such cases, an operational amplifier is used
as an attenuator instead
 Signal linearization
• Several types of transducer used in measuring
instruments have an output that is a non-linear
function of the measured quantity input

• In many cases, this non-linear signal can be converted

to a linear one by special operational amplifier
configurations that have an equal and opposite non-
linear relationship between the amplifier input and
output terminals

• For example, light intensity transducers typically have

an exponential relationship between the output signal
and the input light intensity
 Bias (zero drift) removal
• Sometimes, either because of the nature of the
measurement transducer itself, or as a result of other signal
conditioning operations, a bias (zero drift) exists in the
output signal

• This can be expressed mathematically for a physical

quantity x and measurement signal y as: y=kx+C
• Signal integration

Signal Integration is simply the process of

Integrating output from a transducer

This circuit is used whenever there is a

requirement to integrate the output signal
from a transducer.
 Voltage comparator
• The output of a voltage comparator switches
between positive and negative values
according to whether the difference between
the two input signals is positive or negative

• An operational amplifier connected gives an

output that switches between positive and
negative saturation levels according to
whether V1 - V2 is greater than or less than
zero
 Digital Signal processing
• Digital techniques achieve much greater levels of
accuracy in signal processing than equivalent analogue
methods

• The time taken to process a signal digitally is longer

than that required to carry out the same operation by
analogue techniques.

• Also the equipment required is more expensive

• Some care is needed in making the correct choice

between digital and analogue methods
• Whilst digital signal processing elements in a
measurement system can exist as separate
units, it is more usual to find them as an
integral part of an intelligent instrument

• The construction and mode of operation of

such processing elements are the same

• This is irrespective of whether they are part of

an intelligent instrument or not
Hardware and Software of Digital
Processing

• The hardware aspect of a digital signal-

processing element consists of a digital
computer and analogue interface boards

• The actual form that signal processing takes

depends on the software program executed
by the processor
• Digital computers require signals to be in digital
form whereas most instrumentation transducers
have an output signal in analogue form

• Analogue-to-digital conversion is required at the

interface between analogue transducers and the
digital computer

• Digital-to-analogue conversion is often required

at a later stage to convert the processed signals
back into analogue form
 ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERSION
(ADC)
This process consists of three steps:
• Sampling
• Quantization
• Encoding
• The process of analogue-to-digital conversion consists of
sampling the analogue signal at regular intervals of time.
Each sample of the analogue voltage is then converted
into an equivalent digital value
• This conversion takes a certain finite time, during which
the analogue signal can be changing in value

• The next sample of the analogue signal cannot be taken

until the conversion of the last sample to digital form is
completed
 Sample and hold circuit
• A sample and hold circuit is normally an essential
element at the interface between an analogue sensor
or transducer and an analogue-to-digital converter

• It holds the input signal at a constant level whilst the

analogue-to-digital conversion process is taking place

• This prevents the conversion errors that would

probably result if variations in the measured signal
were allowed to pass through to the converter
• Problems can arise in sampling when the raw
analogue signal is corrupted by high frequency
noise of unknown characteristics

• It would be normal practice to choose the

sampling interval as, say, a ten-times multiple of
the frequency of the measurement component in
the raw signal
• This is one of the circumstances mentioned
earlier, where prior analogue signal conditioning
in the form of a low-pass filter must be carried
out before processing the signal digitally
• One further factor that affects the quality of a
signal when it is converted from analogue to
digital form is quantization
• Quantization describes the procedure whereby
the continuous analogue signal is converted into
a number of discrete levels
• At any particular value of the analogue signal, the
digital representation is either the discrete level
immediately above this value or the discrete level
immediately below this value
For a 3bit
Bit depth: this refers to the number of bits in
each sample. The most commonly used bit-
depth in ADC is 8bit,16bit or 24bit
For 8bits
 Analogue-to-digital converters
• Important factors in the design of an analogue-to-
digital converter are the speed of conversion and the
number of digital bits used to represent the analogue
signal level

• The minimum number of bits used in analogue-to-

digital converters is eight

• The use of eight bits means that the analogue signal

can be represented to a resolution of 1 part in 256 if
the input signal is carefully scaled to make full use of
the converter range.
• However, it is more common to use either 10 bit or 12
bit analogue-to-digital converters, which give
resolutions respectively of 1 part in 1024 and 1 part in
4096

• Several types of analogue-to-digital converter exist

• These differ in the technique used to effect signal

conversion, in operational speed, and in cost

• The simplest type of analogue-to-digital converter is

the counter analogue-to digital converter
 Digital-to-analogue (D/A) conversion
• Digital-to-analogue conversion is much
simpler to achieve than analogue-to-digital
conversion and the cost of building the
necessary hardware circuit is considerably less

• It is required wherever a digitally processed

signal has to be presented to an analogue
control actuator or an analogue signal display
device