3.

Signal Conditioning:
1. Explain the requirements for signal conditioning.
2. Explain how operational amplifiers can be used.
3. Explain the requirements for protection and filtering.
4. Explain the principles of the Wheatstone bridge and, in particular,
how it is used with strain gauges.
5. Explain the principle of pulse modulation.
6. Explain the problems that can occur with ground loops and
interference and suggest possible solutions to these problems.
7. State the requirements for maximum power transfer between electrical
components.

3.1 Introduction

The output signal from the sensor of a measurement system has generally to be processed in
some way to make it suitable for the next stage of the operation. The signal may be, for
example, too small and have to be amplified, contain interference which has to be removed,
be non-linear and require linearisation, be analogue and have to be made digital, be digital
and have to be made analogue, be a resistance change and have to be made into a current
change, be a voltage change and have to be made into a suitable size current change, etc. All
these changes can be referred to as signal conditioning. For example, the output from a
thermocouple is a small voltage, a few millivolts. A signal conditioning module might then be
used to convert this into a suitable size current signal, provide noise rejection, linearisation
and cold junction compensation (i.e. compensating for the cold junction not being at 0°C).

3.1.1 Signal conditioning processes

Some of the processes that can occur in conditioning a signal are outlined below:

 Protection to prevent damage to the next element, e.g. a microprocessor, as a result of

high current or voltage. Thus there can be series current limiting resistors, fuses to
break if the current is too high, polarity protection and voltage limitation circuits.

 Getting the signal into the right type of signal. This can mean making the signal into a
d.c. voltage or current. Thus, for example, the resistance change of a strain gauge has
to be converted into a voltage change. This can be done by the use of a Wheatstone
bridge and using the out-of-balance voltage.

 Getting the level of the signal right. The signal from a thermocouple might be just a
few millivolts. If the signal is to be fed into an analogue-to-digital converter for
inputting to a microprocessor then it needs to be made much larger, volts rather than
millivolts. Operational amplifiers are widely used for amplification.

 Eliminating or reducing noise. For example, filters might be used to eliminate mains
noise from a signal
  Signal manipulation, e.g. making it a linear function of some variable. The signals
from some sensors, e.g. a flowmeter, are non-linear and thus a signal conditioner
might be used so that the signal fed on to the next element is linear.

3.2 The operational amplifier

An amplifier can be considered to be essentially a system which has an input and an output
(Figure 3.1), the voltage gain of the amplifier being the ratio of the output and input voltages
when each is measured relative to the earth. The input impedance of an amplifier is defined
as the input voltage divided by the input current, the output impedance being the output
voltage divided by the output current.

Figure 3.1: Amplifier

The basis of many signal conditioning modules is the operational amplifier. The operational
amplifier is a high-gain d.c. amplifier, the gain typically being of the order of 100,000 or
more, that is supplied as an integrated circuit on a silicon chip. It has two inputs, known as
the

 Inverting input (-) and the

 Non-inverting input (+).

The output depends on the connections made to these inputs. There are other inputs to the
operational amplifier, namely

 A negative voltage supply,

 A positive voltage supply and
 Two inputs termed offset null, these being to enable corrections to be made for the
non-ideal behaviour of the amplifier (to be discussed in later sections).

Figure 3.2 shows the pin connections for a 741-type operational amplifier. An ideal model for
an operational amplifier is as an amplifier with an infinite gain, infinite input impedance
and zero output impedance, i.e. the output voltage is independent of the load.
 Figure 3.2: Pin connections for a 741 operational amplifier
The following indicates the types of circuits that might be used with operational
amplifiers when used as signal conditioners.

3.2.1 Inverting amplifier

Figure 3.3 shows the connections made to the amplifier when used as an inverting amplifier.
The input is taken to the inverting input through a resistor R1 with the non-inverting input
being connected to ground. A feedback path is provided from the output, via the resistor R2 to
the inverting input. The operational amplifier has a voltage gain of about 100,000 and the
change in output voltage is typically limited to about ±10 V. The input voltage must then be
between +0.0001 and -0.0001 V. This is virtually zero and so point X is at virtually earth
potential. For this reason it is called a virtual earth. The potential difference across R1 is
(Vin - VX). Hence, for an ideal operational amplifier with an infinite gain, (and hence VX = 0),
the input potential Vin can be considered to be across R1. Thus,

V ¿ =I 1 R1

Figure 3.3 Inverting amplifier

The operational amplifier has a very high impedance between its input terminals; for a 741
about 2 MΩ. Thus virtually no current flows through X into it. For an ideal operational
amplifier the input impedance is taken to be infinite and so there is no current flow through
X. Hence the current I1 through R1 must be the current through R2. The potential difference
across R2 is (VX – Vout) and thus, since VX is zero for the ideal amplifier, the potential
difference across R2 is -Vout. Thus,

−V out =I 1 R 2

Dividing the 2 equations,

Thus the voltage gain of the circuit is determined solely by the relative values of R2 and R1.
The negative sign indicates that the output is inverted, i.e. 180° out of phase, with respect to
the input. To illustrate the above, consider an inverting operational amplifier circuit which
has a resistance of 1 MV in the inverting input line and a feedback resistance of 10 MV. What
is the voltage gain of the circuit?
As an example of the use of the inverting amplifier circuit, photodiodes are widely used
sensors (see Section 2.10) and give small currents on exposure to light. The inverting
amplifier circuit can be used with such a sensor to give a current to voltage converter, the
photodiode being reverse bias connected in place of resistor R1, and so enable the output to
be used as input to a microcontroller.

3.2.2 Non-Inverting Amplifier

Figure 3.4(a) shows the operational amplifier connected as a non-inverting amplifier. The
output can be considered to be taken from across a potential divider circuit consisting of R1
in series with R2. The voltage VX is then

Figure 3.4: (a) Non-inverting amplifier, (b) voltage follower.

The voltage follower a particular form of this amplifier that has R2 replaced by a short circuit.
i.e. R2=0. Thus voltage gain is 1 and Vout = Vin

3.2.3 Summing amplifier

Figure 3.5: Summing amplifier

 3.2.4 Integrating and differentiating amplifiers
Figure 3.6 a shows an integrating circuit.

Figure 3.6: (a) Integrating amplifier, (b) differentiator amplifier.

Figure 3.6(a) gives

Which is the area under the vin vs time graph.

Figure 3.6(b) shows the differentiating amplifier. A differentiation circuit can be produced if
the capacitor and resistor are interchanged in the circuit for the integrating amplifier.

At high frequencies the differentiator circuit is susceptible to stability and noise problems. A
solution is to add an input resistor Rin (shown dotted) to limit the gain at high frequencies
and so reduce the problem.

3.2.5 Difference amplifier

A difference amplifier is one that amplifies the difference between two input voltages. Figure
3.7 shows the circuit of a difference amplifier.
 Figure 3.7 Difference amplifier.

Figure 3.8 shows how it used with a thermocouple. The difference in voltage between the
e.m.f.s of the two junctions of the thermocouple is being amplified.

Figure 3.8 Difference amplifier with a thermocouple.

If V1=V2, then we define that voltage as Common Mode Voltage VCM. For the amplifier only to
amplify the difference between the two signals, it is assumed that the two input channels are
perfectly matched and the operational amplifier has the same, high gain for both of them.

In practice this is not perfectly achieved and thus the output is not perfectly proportional to
the difference between the two input voltages. Thus we write for the output

Where
Gd is the gain for the voltage difference ΔV,
GCM the gain for the common mode voltage VCM.

The smaller the value of GCM, the smaller the effect of the common mode voltage on the
output. The extent to which an operational amplifier deviates from the ideal situation is
specified by the common mode rejection ratio (CMRR):
To minimize the effect of the common mode voltage on the output, a high CMRR is required.
CMRRs are generally specified in decibels (dB). Thus, on the decibel scale a CMRR of, say,
10,000 would be 20log(10,000) = 80 dB. A typical operational amplifier might have a CMRR
between about 80 and 100 dB.

A common form of instrumentation amplifier involves three operational amplifiers (Figure

3.9), rather than just a single difference amplifier, and is available as a single integrated
circuit (INA114, Figure 3.10). Such a circuit is designed to have a high input impedance,
typically about 300 MV, a high voltage gain and excellent CMRR, typically more than 100 dB.

Figure 3.9 Instrumentation amplifier.

Thus

2 R2
Overall gain = 1+ Set by varying R1.
R1

Figure 3.10 INA114

Figure 3.10 shows the pin connections and some specification details for a low-cost, general-
purpose instrumentation amplifier (Burr-Brown INA114) using this three op-amps form of
design. The gain is set by connecting an external resistor RG between pins 1 and 8, the gain
 50
then being 1+ when RG is in kΩ. The 50 kΩ term arises from the sum of the two internal
RG
feedback resistors.

2.2.6 Logarithmic amplifier

A logarithmic amplifier (Figure 3.11) can be used to linearise the output from a sensor such
as a thermocouple, which is not a perfectly linear function of the temperature difference
between its junctions.

Figure 3.11 Logarithmic amplifier.

If A, a, K are constants, and t is the input of the sensor, then

The result is a linear relationship between Vout and t.

3.2.7 Comparator
A comparator indicates which of two voltages is the larger. An operational amplifier used with
no feedback or other components can be used as a comparator.

Figure 3.12 Comparator

A transducer for the measurement of angular velocity typically might be quoted as having a
repeatability of ±0.01% of the full range at a particular angular velocity.

3.2.8 Real amplifiers

An ideal model for an operational amplifier is as an amplifier with an infinite gain, infinite
input impedance and zero output impedance, i.e. the output voltage is independent of the
load. However, Operational amplifiers are not in the real world the perfect (ideal) element. A
particularly significant problem is that of the offset voltage. An operational amplifier is a
high-gain amplifier which amplifies the difference between its two inputs. Thus if the two
inputs are shorted we might expect to obtain no output. However, in practice this does not
occur and quite a large output voltage might be detected. This effect is produced by
imbalances in the internal circuitry in the operational amplifier. The output voltage can be
made zero by applying a suitable voltage between the input terminals. This is known as the
offset voltage. Many operational amplifiers are provided with arrangements for applying such
an offset voltage via a potentiometer. With the 741 this is done by connecting a 10 kV
potentiometer between pins 1 and 5 (see Figure 3.2) and connecting the sliding contact of the
potentiometer to a negative voltage supply (Figure 3.15). The imbalances within the
operational amplifier are corrected by adjusting the position of the slider until with no input
to the amplifier, there is no output. Typically a general-purpose amplifier will have an offset
voltage between 1 and 5 mV.

Figure 3.15 Correcting the offset voltage.

Operational amplifiers draw small currents at the input terminals in order to bias the input
transistors. The bias current flowing through the source resistance at each terminal
generates a voltage in series with the input. Ideally, the bias currents at the two inputs will
be equal; however, in practice this will not be the case. Thus the effect of these bias currents
is to produce an output voltage when there is no input signal and the output should be zero.
This is particularly a problem when the amplifier is operating with d.c. voltages.

The average value of the two bias currents is termed the input bias current. For a general-
purpose operational amplifier, a typical value is about 100nA.

The difference between the two bias currents is termed the input-offset current. Ideally this
would be zero, but for a typical general purpose amplifier it is likely to be about 10nA, about
10 to 25% of the input bias current.

An important parameter which affects the use of an operational amplifier with alternating
current applications is the slew rate. This is the maximum rate of change at which the
output voltage can change with time in response to a perfect step-function input. Typical
values range from 0.2 V/μs to over 20 V/μs. With high frequencies, the large-signal
operation of an amplifier is determined by how fast the output can swing from one voltage to
another. Thus for use with high-frequency inputs a high value of slew rate is required.