Measurements & Electronic Instruments Laboratory Experiment Manual

Department of Electrical Engineering, I.I.T. Kharagpur

Experiment No. : 7
Electronic Voltmeter

Objective: To construct Electronic Voltmeters for small A.C. and D.C. voltage
measurements and study their performances.

A. D.C. Voltmeter:
The major advantages of an electronic voltmeter over a conventional
moving coil voltmeter are the high sensitivity and high input resistance.
This is particularly true for MV range measurements, since the input
resistance of a moving coil dc millivoltmeter is in the order of ohms. Fig.1
shows the circuit diagram of a simple electronic voltmeter, using IC741
operational amplifier. Here the input voltage Vi is related with the
milliammeter current by the expression Vi = IR1. The input resistance is
ideally infinity (since no current is drawn through the terminal-3) and in
practical case, order of MΩ.

Procedure for calibration:

1. Connect the circuit as shown in fig.1. Use an analog milliammeter in the
range of 0 – 10 mA. Select R1 = 1 kΩ. Connect a variable D.C. power supply (0
– 10V) at terminal 3 of the op-amp (Vi). Measure Vi with a digital multimetre.
With Vi = 0, measure the offset current of the op-amp I0.
2. With R1 = 1k, apply voltages Vi in the range of 0 – 10V D.C. and note the
current I. Plot I vs. Vi. Check the linearity.
3. Change R1 to 100 Ω. Apply voltage in the range of 0 – 1 V D.C. at Vi. Repeat
step-2.
4. Change R1 to 10 Ω. Apply voltage in the range of 0 – 100 mV D.C. at Vi.
Repeat step-2. For obtaining voltage in the range of MV, use a potential
divider circuit as shown in fig.2.

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B. A.C. Voltmeter:

An additional problem for a.c. voltmeter measurement in the mv range is the use of
a diode rectifier in the measuring circuit. Since the voltage drop across a forward
biased diode is in the range of 0.4V – 0.6V, a.c. voltage in the range of mv cannot be
measure using an ordinary rectifier circuit. An alternative is to use a precision
rectifier, which can rectify a.c. voltage even in the range of μv.

Fig. 3 shows a typical circuit for small a.c. voltage measurement. Here a diode is
connected at the output terminal of the op-amp before the feedback and the circuit
acts like a half wave rectifier. The average current through the milliammeter is
given by:

𝑉𝑚
Iav = , where Vm is the peak voltage of the a.c. input
𝜋𝑅1

Procedure:

1. Connect the circuit as shown. Apply a.c. sinusoidal voltage in the range 0-
500mv of frequencies 50Hz, 100Hz and 1 kHz. Adjust the offset of the signal
generator, if required.
2. Note r.m.s. value of the input voltage (Vi ) and the average value of the output
current Iav , and verify
𝑉𝑖 √2
Iav = for different voltages and frequencies.
𝜋𝑅1
3. Observe Voltage waveform at A and B on a CRO and note whether the output
is timely a halfwave rectified voltage or not.

[2]
C. Improve A.C. Rectification Scheme:

The major limitation of the precision rectification circuit shown in fig. 3 is that the
op-amp goes to saturation for half cycle and slew rate of the op-amp distorts the
output. An improved rectification circuit is shown in fig. 4, where the op-amp never
goes to saturation.

Procedure:

Repeat steps 1-3 of part B and see the improvement.

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