• AMPLIFIERS

• 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.
• INSTRUMENTATION AMPLIFIERS
• An instrumentation amplifier is a high-performance differential
amplifier system consisting of several closed-loop operational
amplifiers. An ideal instrumentation amplifier gives an output
voltage which depends only on the difference of two input
voltages V1 and V2, i.e. where the gain K is precisely known
and can be varied over a wide range. A practical
instrumentation amplifier should have a gain which can be set
by a single external resistor and should combine the following:
• High input impedance
• High common mode rejection ratio
• Low input offset voltage
• Low temperature coefficient of offset voltage.
• The differential amplifier which uses a single operational
amplifier is inadequate: in order to obtain high gain, R IN must
be low. This means low input impedance; also the differential
amplifier is highly susceptible to any mismatch in resistance
values.
• Fig shows a typical instrumentation amplifier system
consisting of three operational amplifiers, A1, A2 and A3. The
two input non-inverting amplifiers A1 and A2 provide an
overall differential gain of (1 + 2R1/RG) and a common mode
gain of unity. The output amplifier A3 is a unity gain
differential amplifier.
A typical instrumentation amplifier, has:
• ZIN ≈ 1010 Ω in parallel with 6 pF.
• (CMRR) dB ≈ 115dB min.
• Offset voltage VOL ≈ 50 μV max.
• Temperature coefficient of offset voltage γ ≈ 0.25 μV °C−1.
 Fig Typical instrumentation amplifier.
• ATTENUATOR CIRCUITS:
• An attenuator circuit allows a known source of power to be
reduced by a predetermined factor usually expressed as decibels.
• A powerful advantage of an attenuator is made from non-
inductive resistors, the attenuator is able to change a source or
load, which might be reactive, into one which is precisely known
and resistive. This power reduction is achieved by the attenuator
without introducing distortion. Signals may have power level so
large that they can over drive or damage components.
• Therefore to over come these problem attenuators are used to
reduce the amplitude of a signal or voltage level. An attenuator
circuit is a voltage divider network that allows many ranges of
input and provides a constant range of outputs. To obtain
constant output voltage small signals will be amplified while
large signals will be attenuated which is accomplished by a
voltage divider circuits.
• Now let’s see how an attenuator with various input levels and
constant output can be designed.
• Example: Design an attenuator that has input voltage of 1,
3, 10, 30, and 100V with a constant output voltage of 500mV
and 10MΩ of input resistance as shown below.
VCC
VCC R1

5MΩ 1
100V

R2
3.3MΩ

R3
1.74MΩ

Rotary switch
R4
332kΩ

R5
115kΩ
5

R6
50kΩ

0
• Oscillator Circuits:
• A voltage or current with deliberately induced and time-
varying characteristics is called a signal. Signal generating
circuit is called an oscillator.
• An oscillator is a circuit that outputs a periodic signal. The
circuit is basically energy converter in that dc power usually is
fed into the device and a time-varying signal as a function of
time is the output.
• Oscillating circuits play a central and increasingly important
role in digital and analogue electronic system. Digital devices
require precise system timing, a function provided by
oscillators and similar timing sources. Oscillators, clocks and
timers are essential to the performance of most modern
electronic devices. Signal - generating devices perform the
following things: i.e. conversion of direct or constant voltage
to a particular periodically varying voltage, the manipulation
of that voltage to a desired wave shape, and the precise control
of the magnitude and frequency of that voltage.
• FILTER CIRCUITS:
• A filter can be defined as a signal processing system whose
output signal, usually called the response, differs from the
input signal, called the excitation, such that the output signal
has some prescribed properties.
• In more practical terms an electric filter is a device designed to
suppress, pass, or separate a group of signals from a mixture
of signals according to the specifications in a particular
application.
• Filters are generally classified into three broad classes:
continuous-time, sampled data, and discrete-time filters
depending on the type of signal being processed by the filter.
Therefore, the concept of signals is fundamental in the design
of filters.
• A signal is a function of one or more independent variables
such as time, space, temperature, etc. that carries information.
The independent variables of a signal can either be continuous
or discrete. Assuming that the signal is a function of time, in
the first case the signal is called continuous-time and in the
second, discrete-time.
• A continuous-time signal is defined at every instant of time
over a given interval, whereas a discrete-time signal is defined
only at discrete-time instances. Similarly, the values of a
signal can also be classified in either continuous or discrete.
• In real-world signals, often referred to as analog signals, both
amplitude and time are continuous. These types of signals
cannot be processed by digital machines unless they have been
converted into discrete-time signals. a digital signal is
characterized by discrete signal values that are defined only at
discrete points in time. Digital signal values are represented by
a finite number of digits, which are usually binary coded.
• Filters can be classified on the basis of the input, output, and internal
operating signals. A continuous data filter is used to process
continuous-time or analog signals, whereas a digital filter processes
digital signals.
• Continuous data filters are further divided into passive or active
filters, depending on the type of elements used in their
implementation. the earliest type of filters known in the engineering
community are LC filters, which can be designed by using discrete
components like inductors and capacitors, or crystal and mechanical
filters that can be implemented using LC equivalent circuits. Since no
external power is required to operate these filters, they are often
referred to as passive filters. active filters are based on active devices,
primarily RC elements, and amplifiers.
• In a sampled data filter, the signal is sampled and processed at discrete
instants of time. Depending on the type of signal processed by such a
filter, one may distinguish between an analog sampled data filter and
a digital filter. In an analog sampled data filter the sampled signal can
principally take any value, whereas in a digital filter the sampled
signal is a digital signal. Examples: of analog sampled data filters are
switched capacitor (SC) filters and charge-transfer device (CTD)
• Filter Classification
• Filters are commonly classified according to the filter function
they perform. The basic functions are: low-pass, high-pass,
band pass, and band stop.

• Fig the magnitude function of an ideal filter is 1 in the pass

band and 0 in the stop band as shown for (a) low pass (b) high
pass (c) band pass (d) stop band filters.
• If a filter passes frequencies from zero to its cutoff frequency
Wc and stops all frequencies higher than the cutoff
frequencies, then this filter type is called an ideal low pass
filter. an ideal high-pass filter stops all frequencies below its
cutoff frequency and passes all frequencies above it.
Frequencies extending from W1 to W2 are passed by an ideal
band pass filter, while all other frequencies are stopped. An
ideal band stop filter stops frequencies fromW1 to W2 and
passes all other frequencies. Figure above depicts the
magnitude functions of the four basic ideal filter types.
• So far we have discussed ideal filter characteristics having
rectangular magnitude responses. These characteristics, are
physically not realizable. As a consequence, the ideal response
can only be approximated by some non ideal realizable
system. Several classical approximation schemes have been
developed, each of which satisfies a different criterion of
optimization. This should be taken into account when
comparing the performance of these filters characteristics.
• A common need for filter circuits is in high-performance
stereo systems, where certain ranges of audio frequencies need
to be amplified or suppressed for best sound quality and power
efficiency. You may be familiar with equalizers, which allow
the amplitudes of several frequency ranges to be adjusted to
suit the listener's taste and acoustic properties of the listening
area. You may also be familiar with crossover networks, which
block certain ranges of frequencies from reaching speakers. A
tweeter is inefficient at reproducing low-frequency signals
such as drum beats, so a crossover circuit is connected
between the tweeter and the stereo's output terminals to block
low-frequency signals, only passing high-frequency signals to
the speaker's connection terminals. This gives better audio
system efficiency and better performance. Both equalizers and
crossover networks are examples of filters, designed to
accomplish filtering of certain frequencies.
• Another practical application of filter circuits is in the
“conditioning” of non-sinusoidal voltage waveforms in power
circuits. Some electronic devices are sensitive to the presence
of harmonics in the power supply voltage, and so require
power conditioning for proper operation. If a distorted sine-
wave voltage behaves like a series of harmonic waveforms
added to the fundamental frequency, then it should be possible
to construct a filter circuit that only allows the fundamental
waveform frequency to pass through, blocking all harmonics.