METR2000

Fundamentals of Mechatronics
Lecture Notes

Lecturer Name: Dr Tarek Selmi

Academic Year: 2018-2019
Course Coordinator Name: Dr. Tarek Selmi
 Data Acquisition - A/D & D/A Conversion

Lecture Notes-Chapter#8

Course Learning Outcomes

Perform Analogue to Digital Conversion ADC systems, Digital to
Analogue Conversion DAC systems, and identify required signal
processing techniques such as Correlation Function

Lecturer Name: Dr Tarek Selmi

Academic Year: 2018-2019
Course Coordinator Name: Dr Tarek Selmi
 References
Essential Reading:
1. Modern Control Technology: Components and Systems, Christopher
T. Kilian, 2nd Edition, Thompson Learning, 2000.
2. Automation, Production Systems and Computer Integrated
Manufacturing, M.P. Groover. 4th Edition, 2014, Pearson/prentice Hall.
3. Mechatronics: Principles and Applications, G. Onwubolu, Elseviour,
2005.

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 Introduction
The purpose of most electronic systems is to measure or control some

physical quantities, hence a system will need to acquire data from the

external environment, process this data and record it. Acting as

control system, it will also have to interact with the environment.

Data acquisition can be divided into the steps shown in the below

figure.

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 Introduction

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 Introduction
The flow of information in a typical data acquisition system can be

described as follows:

1. The input transducers measure some quantities from the

environment.

2. The output from the transducers is conditioned (Amplifier, filter,…)

3. The conditioned analog signal is digitized using and analog to

digital converter (ADC).

4. The digital information is acquired, processed and recorded by the

computer.

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 Introduction
5. The computer may then modify the environment by outputting

control signals. The digital control signals are converted to analog

signals using a digital to analog converter (DAC).

6. The analog signals are conditioned appropriately for an output

transducer.

7. The output transducer interacts with the environment.

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 Sampling
 
If Δ is the time interval between consecutive samples, then the

sampled time data can be represented as:

Consider an analog signal than can be viewed as a continuous

function of time, as shown in the below figure.

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 Sampling
 
The signal can be represented as a discrete time signal by using

values of at intervals to form ] as shown below. In this case, we are

mapping points from the function at regular intervals of time called

sampling period.

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 Sampling
 
It is usually to specify a sampling rate or frequency rather than the

sampling period. The frequency is given where is in Hertz. If the

sampling rate is high enough, then the original signal can be

constructed from ] by simply joining the points by small linear

portions, thus approximating to the analog signal. The discrete

samples are digitized or processed by a computer or similar device.

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 The sampling Theorem
 
The sampling theorem, or more correctly Shannon’s theorem, states

that we need to sample a signal at a rate at least twice the maximum

frequency component in order to retain all frequency components in

the signal.

This is expressed as follows:

Where is the sampling rate (Sampling frequency), is the highest

frequency in the input signal, and the minimum rate () is called the

Nyquist frequency. The time interval between the digital samples is:

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 Quantization theory
Analog to digital conversion is a two-steps process, which changes a

sample analog voltage into digital form. Theses processes are

quantization and coding.

Quantization is the transformation of a continuous analog input into a

set of data represented discrete output states. Coding is the

assignment of a digital code word or number to each output state as

shown in the figure.

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 Quantization theory
 
The analog quantization size (or resolution) is defined as the full scale

range of the ADC divided by the number of output states:

Knowing the resolution, Q, and the range () of the ADC, we can

determine the number of bits required:

DO IT

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 Digital-to analog conversion
hardware

The process of converting a number held in digital register to an

analog voltage or current is accomplished with a digital-to-analog

converter (DAC). The DAC is a useful interface between a computer

and an output transducer.

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 Binary-weighted ladder DAC
If you recall, the classic inverting summer circuit is an operational

amplifier using negative feedback for controlled gain, with several

voltage inputs and one voltage output. The output voltage is the

inverted (opposite polarity) sum of all input voltages:

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 Binary-weighted ladder DAC
For a simple inverting summer circuit, all resistors must be of equal

value. If any of the input resistors were different, the input voltages

would have different degrees of effect on the output, and the output

voltage would not be a true sum. Let’s consider, however, intentionally

setting the input resistors at different values. Suppose we were to set

the input resistor values at multiple powers of two: R, 2R, and 4R,

instead of all the same value R:

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 Binary-weighted ladder DAC

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 Resistor ladder DAC
 
The simplest type of DAC converter is the resistor ladder network

connected to an inverting summer op amp. It requires two precision

resistance values (R and 2R). Each digital input bit in the circuit

controls a switch between ground and the inverting op amp as shown

in the following figure.

If the binary number is 0001, only switch is connected to the op

amp, and the other bit switches are grounded.

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 Resistor ladder DAC

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Resistor ladder DAC
The resistance between node and the ground is R since it is the

parallel combination of two 2Rs. Therefore, is the result of the voltage

division of across two series resistors of equal value R:

Similarly, we can obtain , so

Since the gain of the inverting amplifier is , the analog output voltage

corresponding to the binary input 0001 is and so on for the others.

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 Analog to digital conversion
hardware
 
The purpose of the analog to digital converter is to digitize the input

signal from the sample and hold circuit to discrete levels, where B is

the number of bits of the ADC. The input voltage can range from 0V to

or ( to for the bipolar ADC).

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 The parallel-encoding
(Flash) ADC
The parallel-encoding ADC design provides the fastest operation at the

expense of high component count and high cost.

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 The parallel-encoding
(Flash) ADC
 
For a 2-bit converter, the relationship between the code bit and the

binary bits is:

and

State Code ) Binary () Voltage range

0 000 00 0-1

1 001 01 1-2

2 010 10 2-3

3 011 11 3-4

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 The Successive approximation
ADC
The successive approximation analog-to-digital converter circuit

typically consists of four chief sub-circuits:

1. A sample and hold circuit to acquire the input voltage (V in).

2. An analog voltage comparator that compares Vin to the output of the internal DAC and

outputs the result of the comparison to the successive approximation register (SAR).

3. A successive approximation register sub-circuit designed to supply an approximate

digital code of Vin to the internal DAC.

4. An internal reference DAC that, for comparison with VREF, supplies the comparator

with an analog voltage equal to the digital code output of the SARin.

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The Successive approximation
ADC

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 Questions ?

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