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• Signal Conditioning Element

• The output of the transducer element is usually too


small to operate an indicator or a recorder. Therefore, it
is suitably processed and modified in the signal
conditioning element so as to obtain the output in the
desired form.
• The transducer signal is fed to the signal conditioning
element by mechanical linkages (levers, gears, etc.),
electrical cables, fluid transmission through liquids or
through pneumatic transmission using air. For remote
transmission purposes, special devices like radio links or
telemetry systems may be employed.
• Amplification: The term amplification means
increasing the amplitude of the signal without
affecting its waveform.
• The reverse phenomenon is termed attenuation,
i.e. reduction of the signal amplitude while
retaining its original waveform.
• In general, the output of the transducer needs to
be amplified in order to operate an indicator or a
recorder.
• Therefore, a suitable amplifying element is
incorporated in the signal conditioning element
which may be one of the following depending
on the type of transducer signal.
• 1. Mechanical Amplifying
• 2. Hydraulic/Pneumatic Amplifying
• 3. Optical Amplifying
• 4. Electrical Amplifying
• 1. Mechanical Amplifying Elements : such as
levers, gears or a combination of the two,
designed to have a multiplying effect on the input
transducer signal.
• 2. Hydraulic/Pneumatic Amplifying Elements
employing various types of valves or
constrictions, such as venturi meter/orifice meter,
to get significant variation in pressure with small
variation in the input parameters.
• 3. Optical Amplifying:- Elements in which lenses,
mirrors and combinations of lenses and mirrors or
lamp and scale arrangement are employed to convert
the small input displacement into an output of sizeable
magnitude for a convenient display of the same.
• 4. Electrical Amplifying:- Elements employing
transistor circuits, integrated circuits, etc. for boosting
the amplitude of the transducer signal. In such
amplifiers we have either of the following:
output voltage V0
Voltage amplificat ion
input voltage Vi
output current I0
Current amplificat ion
input current Ii
output power I 0V0
Gain
input power I iVi
• The term signal filtration means the removal of
unwanted noise signals that tend to obscure the
transducer signal.
• The signal filtration element could be any of the
following depending on the type of situation, nature of
signal, etc.
• 1. Mechanical Filters:- that consist of mechanical
elements to protect the transducer element from various
interfering extraneous signals. For example, the
reference junction of a thermocouple is kept in a
thermos flask containing ice. This protects the system
from the ambient temperature changes.
2. Pneumatic Filters:- consisting of a small orifice or
venturi to filter out fluctuations in a pressure signal.
3. Electrical Filters :- are employed to get rid of stray
pick-ups due to electrical and magnetic fields. They
may be simple R-C circuits or any other suitable
electrical filters compatible with the measured signal.
• Other signal conditioning operators that can be
conveniently employed for electrical signals are
• 1. Signal Compensation / Signal Linearization.
• 2. Differentiation / Integration.
• 3. Analog-to-Digital Conversion.
• 4. Signal Averaging / Signal Sampling, etc.
Operational Amplifier
• An operational amplifier, or op-amp, is an
electronic device having very high gain
differential amplifier, A, high input
impedance, Zin, and low output impedance,
Zout as shown in Figure a. Typical uses of op-amp
are to provide voltage amplitude changes
(amplitude and polarity), oscillators, filter
circuits, and many types of instrumentation
circuits.
• The op-amp operates using two power supplies,
+VCC and –VEE, (some op-amps can operates using a
single supply, i.e., -VEE is grounded). The op-amp
input, vin, to the differential amplifier is the
difference between two input voltages: the non-
inverting input and the inverting input. The op-amp
has a single-ended output. Op-amp also has an input
impedance, zin, an output impedance, zout, and a voltage
gain A as shown in the schematic diagram above.
• The output voltage of the op-amp can be express in term
of the input voltage and the gain of the amplifier as:

Vo = A Vin
• A typical op-amp has very high gain, very high input
impedance (Zin is in the range of M ) and very low
output impedance (Zout is less than 100 ).
• Below is a simple block diagram of an op-amp. The
differential amplifier takes two inputs and amplifies
the difference, the gain stage contains many
amplification stages to achieve high gain of the op-amp
and the output stage (a class B amplifier) provides high
current gain with low output impedance.
To analyze circuits using op-amps, the ideal op-amps are used
to simplify the process. Some characteristics of the ideal op-
amp are:
Inverting Amplifier:
• The inverting amplifier is an important op-amp
circuit.
• The inverting amplifier uses negative feedback to
stabilize the overall voltage gain of the amplifier
because the open-loop gain of the op-amp is too
high and the circuit will be unstable to be used
without some forms of feedback.
• The circuit is analyzed as below using the ideal op-
amp characteristics.
• The plot of the inverting amplifier gain versus
frequency is shown below. The op-amp has an open
loop gain, A(OL), and an open loop cutoff frequency
f2(OL). For the feedback configuration, the amplifier has
a close loop gain, A(CL), and a close loop frequency
f2(CL). When the gain is 0dB (i.e., gain=1=unity), the
amplifier has a frequency f (unity).
Differential Amplifiers
A differential amplifier is a dual input amplifier that amplifies
the difference between two signals, such that the output is the
gain multiplied by the magnitude of the difference between
the two signals. One signal is fed to the negative input of the
op-amp and the other signal is fed to the positive input of the
op-amp. Hence the signals are subtracted before being
amplified. Figure below shows a basic differential voltage
amplifier. The output voltage is given by

Signals can also be subtracted or added in a resistor network


prior to amplification.
(a) a current to voltage converter (b) a voltage to current converter
The circuits shown for inverting and non inverting amplifiers
were for voltage amplifiers. Op-amps can also be used as
current amplifiers, voltage to current and current to voltage
converters, and special-purpose amplifiers. In Fig. a the op-
amp is used as a current-to-voltage converter. When used as
a converter, the relation between input and output is called
the transfer function µ(or ratio). These devices do not have
gain as such because of the different input and output units.
In Fig. a the transfer ratio is given by
In Fig. b the op-amp is used as a voltage-to-current converter.
In this case the transfer ratio is given by:-
Note, in this case the units are in mhos (1/ohms), and the
resistors are related by the equation
Integrator

The output of the integrator is proportional to the integral over


time of its input signal (example, a constant input vi yields a
ramp output).
Differentiator

The output of the differentiator is proportional to the


differential over time of its input signal (example, a ramp
input vi yields a constant output).
Filters
• What Does a Filter Do?
• A filter is an electrical network that alters the
amplitude and/or phase characteristics of a signal
with respect to frequency. Ideally, a filter will not
add new frequencies to the input signal, nor will it
change the component frequencies of that signal, but
it will change the relative amplitudes of the various
frequency components and/or their phase
relationships. Filters are often used in electronic
systems to emphasize signals in certain frequency
ranges and reject signals in other frequency ranges.
Such a filter has a gain which is dependent on signal
frequency.
As an example, consider a situation where a useful signal
at frequency f1 has been contaminated with an unwanted
signal at f2. If the contaminated signal is passed through a
circuit (Figure 1) that has very low gain at f2 compared to
f1, the undesired signal can be removed, and the useful
signal will remain. Note that in the case of this simple
example, we are not concerned with the gain of the filter
at any frequency other than f1 and f2. As long as f2 is
sufficiently attenuated relative to f1, the performance of
this filter will be satisfactory.
• In general, however, a filter's gain may be specified at
several different frequencies, or over a band of frequencies.
• Since filters are defined by their frequency-domain effects on
signals, it makes sense that the most useful analytical and
graphical descriptions of filters also fall into the frequency
domain. Thus, curves of gain vs frequency and phase vs
frequency are commonly used to illustrate filter
characteristics, and the most widely-used mathematical tools
are based in the frequency domain. The frequency-domain
behavior of a filter is described mathematically in terms of its
transfer function or network function. This is the ratio of the
Laplace transforms of its output and input signals. The oltage
transfer function H(s) of a filter can therefore be written as:
• where VIN(s) and VOUT(s) are the input and output signal
voltages and s is the complex frequency variable.
• The transfer function defines the filter's response to any
arbitrary input signal, but we are most often concerned with
its effect on continuous sine waves. Especially important is
the magnitude of the transfer function as a function of
frequency, which indicates the effect of the filter on the
amplitudes of sinusoidal signals at various frequencies.
Knowing the transfer function magnitude (or gain) at each
frequency allows us to determine how well the filter can
distinguish between signals at different frequencies. The
transfer function magnitude versus frequency is called the
amplitude response
Filters can be either passive or active and can be
divided into the following:
• High pass: Allows high frequencies to pass but blocks low
frequencies.
• Low pass: Allows low frequencies to pass but blocks high
frequencies.
• Band pass: Allows a specific range of frequencies to pass.
• Band reject: Blocks a specific range of frequencies.
• The number of resistive and capacitive elements determines
whether the filter is a first-order filter, second-order
Filters
• Approaches to implementing filters: Active, passive,
and switched-capacitor
Passive Filters
• A passive filter is simply a filter that uses no amplifying
elements (transistors, operational amplifiers, etc.). In this
respect, it is the simplest (in terms of the number of
necessary components) implementation of a given transfer
function. Passive filters have other advantages as well.
Because they have no active components, passive filters
require no power supplies. Since they are not restricted by
the bandwidth limitations of op amps, they can work well at
very high frequencies. They can be used in applications
involving larger current or voltage levels than can be
handled by active devices.
• Passive filters also generate little noise when
compared with circuits using active gain elements.
The noise that they produce is simply the thermal
noise from the resistive components, and, with
careful design, the amplitude of this noise can be
very low.
• Passive filters have some important disadvantages
in certain applications, however. Since they use no
active elements, they cannot provide signal gain.
• Input impedances can be lower than desirable, and
output impedances can be higher the optimum for
some applications, so buffer amplifiers may be
needed.
• Inductors are necessary for the synthesis of most
useful passive filter characteristics, and these can be
prohibitively expensive if high accuracy (1% or
2%,for example), small physical size, or large value
are required. Standard values of inductors are not
very closely spaced, and it is difficult to find an off-
the-shelf unit within 10% of any arbitrary value, so
adjustable inductors are often used. Tuning these to
the required values is time-consuming and
expensive when producing large quantities of filters.
• Furthermore, complex passive filters (higher than
2nd-order) can be difficult and time-consuming to
design.
Active Filters
Active filters use amplifying elements, especially op
amps, with resistors and capacitors in their feedback
loops, to synthesize the desired filter characteristics.
Active filters can have high input impedance, low
output impedance, and virtually any arbitrary gain.
They are also usually easier to design than passive
filters. Possibly their most important attribute is that
they lack inductors, thereby reducing the problems
associated with those components. Still, the problems
of accuracy and value spacing also affect capacitors,
although to a lesser degree.
• Performance at high frequencies is limited by
the gain-bandwidth product of the amplifying
elements, but within the amplifier's operating
frequency range, the op amp-based active filter
can achieve very good accuracy, provided that
low-tolerance resistors and capacitors are used.
• Active filters will generate noise due to the
amplifying circuitry, but this can be minimized
by the use of low-noise amplifiers and careful
circuit design.
Circuit for the low-
pass RC filter.

Response of the low-pass RC filter as a


Passive Active
function of the frequency ratio
Circuit for the high
pass RC filter.

Response of the high-pass RC filter as a function of


Passive Active the frequency ratio
Circuit for the band pass RC
filter.

Passive Active
Response of the band-pass RC filter as
a function of the frequency

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