Resistive Sensors

A resistive sensor is a transducer or electromechanical device that converts a mechanical

change such as displacement into an electrical signal that can be monitored after conditioning.
Resistive sensors are among the most common in instrumentation. The simplest resistive sensor
is the potentiometer. Other resistive sensors include strain gages and thermistors. Resistive
sensors are often combined with Wheatstone bridges. Older carbon microphones are also resistive
sensors. The theoretical background for all these sensors is the theory of resistivity.
Resistivity and Resistance
Resistivity is the electrical resistance measured for any material having uniform cross-sectional
area and is usually stated in terms of the materials length and/or cross sectional area. Resistivity
is resistance stated in terms of length and cross-sectional area as shown in the equation
Resistance = (Resistivity * Length)/Area
The unit of resistivity is the ohm-ft or the circular mil-ohm-ft.
The resistance of a material depends on four factors:
Composition
Length
Temperature
Cross Sectional Area
To change the resistance of a material, you must change the value of one of the above
factors. When length is modified the change in resistance is direct. If you double the materials
length, its resistance doubles. When the cross sectional area is modified the change in resistance
has an inverse effect, IE R = k/A. If you double the cross-sectional area of wire, its resistivity is
cut in half. Changes in composition and temperature do not change the resistivity of a material in
such a simple way.
Theory of Operation of Potentiometers
A potentiometer is an electromechanical device containing a movable wiper arm that maintains
electrical contact with a resistive surface. The wiper is coupled mechanically to a movable
member or linkage. The wiper and resistive surface form a voltage divider circuit when voltage is
applied across the entire resistance within the potentiometer. See figure 1.

INPUT: Movement of
Wiper
Wiper
OUTPUT:
Voltage

Figure 1.

A variable voltage can then be produced at a wiper arm relative to one end of the resistor as the
wiper is moved. The wiper is usually made of a material such as beryllium or phosphor bronze.
The rotating shaft is generally a bearing for industrial applications or bronze sleeves for
inexpensive operations. If the potentiometer is wire wound, specially formulated platinum or
nickel alloy is used. This yields a high resistance that doesnt change with age and doesnt affect
the voltage divider with changing temperatures. A mandrel is used for support of the wire wound
wrap or resistance material. The mandrel can be composed of plastic, glass, or insulated metal.
For a wire wrap potentiometer, wire is wrapped around a circular former. The wiper is mounted
on a shaft through the center of the former and slides along one of the circular edges of the wire
ring. The insulation is removed from the wire in the area of contact.

Types and Designs

There are several types of potentiometers besides wire wound. There are also carbon film, metal
film, conductive plastic film, cermet (ceramic-metal combination), and slide wire. These types can
also be designed as multi-turn or continuous turn potentiometers. The disadvantage for any
rotary potentiometer is that a dead zone is required so that the sensor doesnt short out the
beginning of the potentiometer surface to the end of the surface. Potentiometers used for standard
electronic work have about 270of usable rotation. Instrumentation potentiometers typically have
about 358of usable rotation, leaving a dead zone of just a few degrees.
Carbon film potentiometers are subject to wear. Carbon granules form on the track and
accumulate under the wiper forming a variable resistance layer. This phenomenon is very
noticeable in radios that crackle when the volume knob is turned

Wiper
Granules
Track
Figure 2.
The simplest of all potentiometers is the slide wire. It consisted merely of a straight piece
of wire with a power source connected across it. A wiper moves along the wire picking off the
voltage. The metal film potentiometer consists of a partially conductive metal sprayed on the
mandrel in its molten state to form the variable resistance surface over which the wiper travels.
The continuous plastic film potentiometer consists of a conductive plastic molded into a film that
has been mounted on a stiffened, nonconductive backbone or substrate. The carbon film
potentiometer consists of a mixture of carbon and a nonconductive clay-like substance bonded in
the form of a thin layer or film over a plastic or metal form. The cermet potentiometer consists of
a mixture of metal particles and a ceramic material fired onto a surface to form a very hard and

durable resistive surface. The composition of the material for any of these films determines their
resistive value. One advantage of film potentiometers is that they can be designed to have a
logarithmic or linear output.
Advantages
Slide Wire

Simple to construct, linear output, self cleaning, high power, and low resistance,
low noise, long lifetime
Metal Film
Rugged and able to withstand shock and vibration before the conductive path is
fractured. High resolution, low noise, long lifetime
Carbon Film High resolution
Cermet
High resolution, low noise, long lifetime
Wire Wound High power, long lifetime (>10 million cycles), self cleaning, resolution of 0.051%, rugged and reliable
Plastic Film Long lifetime (>10 million cycles), high resolution (100 ohms/mm 0.001mm
resolution), long lifetime
All
Can sense, linear displacement, angular displacement, linear acceleration and
angular acceleration and. Able to measure large displacements (7200 degrees for a
20 turn or several meters for a slidewire or much longer distances for a string
pot.). Easy to understand. Simple to install. Inexpensive. Accurate. Linear.
Low friction. Excellent sensitivity. Wide operating temperature. Wide resistance
available (10 to 1 million ohms). Simple operation (only a voltage source and
voltmeter is required for a complete instrumentation system.
Disadvantages
Slide Wire
Low resistance and high power requirements of voltage source, large size
Metal Film
Wear
Carbon Film Wear creates carbon granules. Variable resistance with temperature. (microphone)
(cheap radio volume control)
Cermet
Trimming is required after production because of process inconsistencies.
Wire Wound Digitizing limits hurts linearity. Output increases in a stepwise manner as the
wiper moves from one turn to the adjacent turn. This step change in resistance
limits the resolution of the potentiometer to Length/number of turns. The step
change is not uniform but varies with half-step. The half-step resistance change
depends on where on the winding the wiper is. Inductive (especially with a metal
mandrel). Poor AC performance. Electrical noise as wiper moves from one wire
turn to the next. This noise can be minimized by ensuring that the coil is clean and
free of oxide films and by lubricating the coil with a thin film of light oil.
Plastic Film Wear
All
Limited dynamic response because shaft and wiper assembly has inertia so it is
only good for static and quasi-static measurements where a high frequency
response is not required. frequency response limited by mechanical construction.
Application
Potentiometers can be applied in almost any application where a movement needs to be measured.

The only theory involved in application is the voltage divider rule, which is derived directly from
Ohms law. The formula for linear voltage output is simply:
Output voltage = (wiper distance)*(input voltage)/(total length)
This formula can be easily rearranged to find any component.
Note that all potentiometers draw power through the resistor at all times. Using a very
high resistance potentiometer can reduce the power drawn. This has the unfortunate side effect of
creating a high-impedance output to the next stage of the instrumentation chain. We usually desire
a low-impedance source so that the input impedance of the next stage does not affect the
accuracy of the measurement. Design with potentiometer sensors becomes a trade-off between
current consumption and impedance matching.
Potentiometers can also have logarithmic scales. Logarithmic pots can be very useful as
part of the signal conditioning of a sensor. If a measurement is inherently exponential then a
logarithmic pot can be used to compensate. This is why logarithmic pots are used for volume
control in audio work. Perceived sound is an exponential quantity (dB).
One interesting application for potentiometric sensors is known as the String Pot design.
In this design a string is attached around a spring-loaded drum so that linear motion is converted
to rotary motion.
Half Stepping of Wire-wound potentiometers
Wire wound potentiometers rely on the change of resistance as the wiper passes from one loop of
the winding to the next. The resistance, therefore, does not change continuously, but in steps as
the wiper passes from one winding to the next. Furthermore, when the wiper bridges between one
winding and the next a single loop is short-circuited and a half-step resistance change occurs. The
resistance change between one step and the next is step0-wise linear. The resistance change
between a step and a half step depends on the position of the wiper relative to the beginning or
the end of the winding.
Consider a wire-wound potentiometer with 100 windings. Let each winding have a
resistance of 0.5 ohms. The wiper on any particular winding can be considered as a voltage
divider with the output voltage fraction equal to the portion on resistance up to the wiper divided
by total resistance.
a)

Wiper on 20th winding:

Vout = Vin 20 x 0.5 = 20.0% Vin
100 X 0.5

On the half step when the wiper is bridging across a winding there is one less winding less in the
total.
b)

Wiper bridging 21st winding:

Vout = Vin 20 x 0.5 = 20 Vin = 20.2% Vin
(100-1)0.5 99
So the half step added 0.2% to the resistance
c)

Wiper on 70th winding:

Vout = Vin 70 = 70.0% Vin

100
d)

Wiper bridging 71st winding:

Vout = Vin 70 = 70.7% Vin
99

Here the half step added 0.7% resistance. A half step at the 50th winding would add 0.5%. So the
increase in R is digitized and the steps are non-linear but the increase is monotonic. This limits
resolution. The resolution varies from zero to a single step. Usually we describe the resolution and
the accuracy of wire-wound potentiometers in terms of full step size. Improved resolution could
be obtained by calibrating for the varying half step with, for example, a look-up table in software,
but it is probably easier and cheaper to use a wire-wound potentiometer with closer spacing.
Example:
A wire wound potentiometer has 700 windings spread over 350. The resolution (in full steps) is
350/700 steps = 0.5/step. If a 10V DC supply is attached to the potentiometer and the total
resistance is 15 K then the average sensitivity is 10V/350= 29mV/. The continuous power
consumption is (102)V/15 K = 6.7 mA plus the power drawn by the load.
Additional Information
Principle difference between common electronic pots and instrumentation pots is quality of
construction - bearings etc. instrumentation pots should be friction free and lightweight to cause
minimum load and provide maximum frequency response for the system being measured.
Sources: The majority of the information for this handout was taken from:
Carstens, Electrical Sensors and Transducers, Prentice Hall, 1993, pages 185-199
Dally, Riley, and McConnell, Instrumentation for Engineering Measurements, Wiley, 1993, 2nd
Ed, pages 124-126
Problems
1. A wirewound potentiometer has 360 windings. The input voltage is 5 Volts. What is the
output voltage when:
a) The wiper is on the 180 winding.
b) The wiper is bridging the 181st winding.
2. What supply voltage is required if the wiper on a 2 inch logarithmic metal film potentiometer
is to have a value of 1 Volt at 1 inch?
3. What is the output voltage of the above potentiometer when the wiper is at:

a) 1/2 inch
b) 1 1/2 inches
4. A rotary wire-wound potentiometer has 648 windings for its 9/10 circle operating range.
There is +10V at one end and -10V at the other end of the winding. What is the resolution of
this rotary position sensor? (ignore half-steps)