Electronic Measurements and

Instrumentation
Presented by
Mr. G Swaminaidu
Assistant Professor
Department of ECE

Vignan’s Institute of Engineering for Women

Affiliated to JNTUK
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Vignan’s Institute of Engineering for Women, Visakhapatnam
 Unit-II
Signal Generator- fixed and variable, AF oscillators,
Standard and AF sine and square wave signal
generators, Function Generators, Square pulse, Random
noise, sweep, Arbitrary waveform. Wave Analyzers,
Harmonic Distortion Analyzers, Spectrum Analyzers,
Digital Fourier Analyzers.

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

Vignan’s Institute of Engineering for Women, Visakhapatnam
G Swaminaidu, Assistant Professor
 Signal generator
• A signal generator is a vital component in a test setup, and in
electronic troubleshooting and development, whether on a
service bench or in a research laboratory.

• Signal generators have a variety of applications, such as

checking the stage gain, frequency response, and alignment in
receivers and in a wide range of other electronic equipment.
• The common requirements for signal generators are
– The frequency of the signal should be known and stable
– The amplitude should be controllable from very small to relatively
large
– Finally, the signal should be distortion-free

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

Vignan’s Institute of Engineering for Women, Visakhapatnam G Swaminaidu, Assistant Professor
 • Various kinds of signals, at both audio and radio frequencies, are
required at various times in an instrumentation system.
• In most cases a particular signal required by the instrument is
internally generated by a self-contained oscillator. The oscillator
circuit commonly appears in a fixed frequency form.
• In other cases, such as in a Q-meter, oscillators in the form of a
variable frequency arrangement for covering Q-measurements
over a wide range of frequencies, from a few 100 kHz to the
MHz range, are used.
• AF and RF generators are designed to provide extensive and
continuous coverage over as wide a range of frequencies as is
practical.
• In RF signal generators, additional provision is generally made to
modulate the continuous wave signal to provide a modulated RF
signal.
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Vignan’s Institute of Engineering for Women, Visakhapatnam G Swaminaidu, Assistant Professor
 Frequency Ranges

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Vignan’s Institute of Engineering for Women, Visakhapatnam
Fixed Frequency AF Oscillator:
• In many cases, a self-contained oscillator is an integral part of
the instrument circuitry and is used to generate a signal at
some specified audio frequency. Such a fixed frequency might
be a 400 Hz signal used for audio testing or a 1000 Hz signal
for exciting a bridge circuit.

• Oscillations at specified audio frequencies are easily generated

by the use of an iron core transformer to obtain positive
feedback through inductive coupling between the primary and
secondary windings.
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Variable AF Oscillator:
• A variable AF oscillator for general purpose use in a laboratory
should cover at least the full range of audibility (20 Hz to 20
kHz) and should have a fairly constant pure sinusoidal wave
output over the entire frequency range.

• Hence, variable frequency AF generators for laboratory use are

of the RC feedback oscillator type or Beat Frequency
Oscillator (BFO) type.

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 Basic standard signal generator

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 Conventional standard signal generator

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 Modern signal generator

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 AF sine and Square Wave Generator

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The front panel of a signal generator consists of the following.
• Frequency selector It selects the frequency in different ranges and varies it
continuously in a ratio of 1 : 11. The scale is non-linear.
• Frequency multiplier It selects the frequency range over 5 decades, from 10
Hz to 1 MHz.
• Amplitude multiplier It attenuates the sine wave in 3 decades, x 1, x 0.1
and x 0.01.
• Variable amplitude It attenuates the sine wave amplitude continuously.
• Symmetry control It varies the symmetry of the square wave from 30% to
70%.
• Amplitude It attenuates the square wave output continuously.
• Function switch It selects either sine wave or square wave output.
• Output available This provides sine wave or square wave output.
• Sync This terminal is used to provide synchronization of the internal signal
with an external signal.
• On-Off Switch

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 Function generator

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 Pulse generator

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 Random noise generator

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 Frequency response of noise

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 Wave Analyzers
• Any complex wave form is made up of a fundamental and its
harmonics
• To measure the amplitude of each harmonic or fundamental
individually by an instrument is called as wave analyzers.
• The measuring of amplitude is simple in frequency domain,
and can be performed with set of tuned filters and voltmeter.
• The other names of wave analyzers are frequency selective
voltmeters, carrier frequency voltmeters, and selective level
voltmeters.

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 Basic Wave Analyzer

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 Frequency Selective Wave Analyzers

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 Frequency Selective Wave Analyzers

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 Heterodyne Wave analyzer

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 RF Heterodyne Wave Analyzers

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 RF Heterodyne Wave Analyzers

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Simple sweep frequency generator

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Sweep generator for entire freq band

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 Harmonic Analyzer

• When a sinusoidal signal is applied to a ideal linear amplifier,

it produces the same output without distortion.
• In practical, the elements have on non-linear characteristics,
hence the output is not exact replica of input because of
distortion.
• An amplitude distorted sine wave is made up of pure sine
wave components, including the
– Fundamental frequency, f of the input signal and
– Harmonics are integer multiples of fundamental frequency i.e. 2f, 3f,
4f, . . . ,nf.
• Harmonic distortion can be measured accurately by using
harmonic distortion analyzer.
• The Total Harmonic Distortion is given by
D D22  D32  D42  . . .  Dn2
E2 E E
D2  , D3  3 , D4  4 ,...
E1 E1 E1
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 Harmonic Analyzer

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 Harmonic Analyzer

• A harmonic distortion analyzer measures total harmonic power

present in a test wave
• This can be easily achieved by Suppress or block the
fundamental frequency and allow the other harmonics.
• This can be done by following techniques
– Using high pass filter
– Using resonance bridge type
– Wien bridge
– Bidged T-network method

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 High pass filter

Testing wave input

containing
High pass filter Meter
fundamental and
harmonics

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 Resonance bridge

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 Wein bridge method

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 Bridge T-Network Method

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 Harmonic distortion analyser using
bridged T-Network

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 Spectrum Analyzer
(parallel filter bank analyzer)

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 Spectrum Analyzer

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 Test wave on ordinary CRO

Display on spectrum CRO

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Test waveform as seen on X-axis (Time)
Z-Axis (Freuency)

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 RF Spectrum Analyzer

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 Basics of digital Fourier analyzer

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 Digital Fourier analyzer
• The digital signal analyzer converts the analog wave form over time
period T into N number of samples.
• The advantage of digitization are less memory size, easy error
detection and correction, signal processing is easier.
• The digital signal analyzer employs an FFT algorithm.
• The block diagram is divided into three sections namely
– The input section
– The control section
– The display section

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The Fourier transform is given by

The Inverse Fourier transform is given by

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Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Vignan’s Institute of Engineering for Women, Visakhapatnam