‫بسمميحرلا نمحرلا هللا‬

Alsalama College of Sciences &Technology

Electrical Engineering Department

Sensors & Transducers

1
Ust. Mujahed Eltijani Ali
 Sensors & Transducers
Introduction:

Transducer: is any device which converts one form of energy into another
 When a transducer converts a measurable quantity (sound, pressure,
optical intensity, magnetic field, etc) to an electrical voltage or an
electrical current we call it a sensor.
 When the transducer converts an electrical signal into another form of
energy, such as sound, light, mechanical movement, it is called an actuator.
Actuators are important in instrumentation. They allow the use of feedback
at the source of the measurement. The study of using actuators and feedback
belongs to a course in Control theory.
 Sensors and actuators are forms of transducers
 Sensors & Transducers

When input is a physical quantity and output electrical → Sensor

When input is electrical and output a physical quantity → Actuator

 Sensors & Transducers
Examples of common transducers include the following:
1. A microphone converts sound into electrical impulses and a
loudspeaker converts electrical impulses into sound (i.e., sound
energy to electrical energy and vice versa).
2. A solar cell converts light into electricity and a thermocouple
converts thermal energy into electrical energy.
3. A light bulb produces light by passing a current through a filament.
Thus, a light bulb is a transducer for converting electrical energy into
optical energy.
4. An electric motor is a transducer for conversion of electricity into
mechanical energy or motion.
 Sensors & Transducers

Three types of transducers: light bulb, microphone, and electric motors

 Sensors & Transducers
 A sensor is a device that receives and responds to a signal.
 This signal must be produced by some type of energy, such as heat, light,
motion, or chemical reaction.
 Once a sensor detects one or more of these signals (an input), it converts
it into an analog or digital representation of the input signal.
 Based on this explanation of a sensor, you should see that sensors are
used in all aspects of life to detect and/or measure many different
conditions.
Human beings are equipped with 5 different types of sensors
 Sensors & Transducers

 Eyes detect light energy

Ears detect acoustic energy

A tongue and a nose detect certain chemicals

Skin detects pressures and temperatures

The eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin receive these signals then send

messages to the brain which outputs a response. For example, when you

touch a hot plate, it is your brain that tells you it is hot, not your skin.
 Sensors & Transducers
The measurement system

 What is the purpose of the measurement system ?

 The purpose of the measurement system is to link the observer to the

process, as shown in Figure below

 The input to the measurement system is the true value of the

variable; the system output is the measured value of the variable.

 In an ideal measurement system, the measured value would be equal

to the true value.
 Sensors & Transducers
 The accuracy of the system can be defined as the closeness of the
measured value to the true value.

Structure of measurement systems

 The measurement system consists of several elements or blocks.

 The four types are shown in Figure below follows

 Sensors & Transducers

1- Sensing element

 This is in contact with the process and gives an output which depends in
some way on the variable to be measured.

 Example is:

Thermocouple where millivolt e.m.f. depends on temperature

 If there is more than one sensing element in a system, the element in

contact with the process is termed the primary sensing element, the others
secondary sensing elements.
 Sensors & Transducers

 The sensing elements are classified according to whether the output

signal is electrical, mechanical, thermal or optical.
 Elements with an electrical output are further divided into passive and
active.
 Passive elements require an external power supply in order to give a
voltage or current output signal.
such as resistive, capacitive and inductive elements.
 Active elements no need external power supply to give a voltage or
current output signal.
such as electromagnetic and thermoelectric elements.
 Sensors & Transducers
Some types of sensing elements
1. Resistive sensing element
It passive element it used for sense (Temperature, Displacement, strain gauge
and Gas …. etc)
i. Potentiometers for linear and angular displacement measurement
ii. Resistive metal and semiconductor sensors for temperature measurement
iii. Metal and semiconductor resistive strain gauges
vi. Semiconductor resistive gas sensors

2. Capacitive sensing elements

It passive element it used for sense (Pressure, Level, Strain and Humidity,
etc)
 Sensors & Transducers

3. Inductive sensing elements

It passive element it used for sense (Displacement and Strain, …)

i. Variable inductance displacement sensors

ii. Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) displacement sensor

4. Electromagnetic sensing elements

It active element. These elements are used for the measurement of linear and
angular velocity

5. Thermoelectric (Thermocouple ) sensing elements

It active. These elements are commonly used for measuring temperature.
 Sensors & Transducers

6. Elastic sensing elements

It has mechanical output. If a force is applied to a spring, then the amount of
extension or compression of the spring is approximately proportional to the
applied force. This is the principle of elastic sensing elements which convert
an input force into an output displacement.
Elastic elements are also commonly used for measuring torque, pressure and
acceleration

7. Piezoelectric sensing elements

It has active electric output it used for sense (Force and Acceleration,…)

8. Piezoresistive sensing elements

It has passive electric output it used for sense (Pressure , …)
 Sensors & Transducers
9. Electrochemical sensing elements
It has active electric output
i. Ion selective electrodes
 Ion selective electrodes (ISEs) are sensors which directly measure the
activity or concentration of ions in solution.
 They could, for example, be used to measure the concentration of lead,
sodium or nitrate ions in drinking water.

ii. Electrochemical gas sensors

iii. Chemically sensitive field effect transistors (CHEMFET)
 Sensors & Transducers
2- Signal conditioning element

 This takes the output of the sensing element and converts it into a
form more suitable for further processing, usually a d.c. voltage, d.c.
current or frequency signal.

Examples are:

 Amplifier which amplifies millivolts to volts

 Oscillator which converts an impedance change into a variable

frequency voltage.
 Sensors & Transducers

3- Signal processing element

 This takes the output of the conditioning element and converts it into
a form more suitable for presentation.

 Examples are:

 Analogue -to- digital converter (ADC) which converts a voltage into

a digital form for input to a computer

 Computer which calculates the measured value of the variable from

the incoming digital data.

 Sensors & Transducers

4- Data presentation element

 This presents the measured value in a form which can be easily

recognised by the observer.

 Examples are:

 Simple pointer–scale indicator

 Visual display unit (VDU).

 Sensors & Transducers
Examples of measurement systems

 Figures below shows some typical examples of measurement

systems.

 Figure above shows a temperature system with a thermocouple

sensing element; this gives a millivolt output.

 Signal conditioning consists of a circuit to compensate for changes

in reference junction temperature, and an amplifier.

 The voltage signal is converted into digital form using an analogue-

to-digital converter, and the measured value is displayed on a VDU.
 Analog and Digital Quantities
Analog Quantity:
 An analog quantity or signal is one having continuous values over limit
range
 All the processes and phenomenon in real world are continuous. One can
consider the example of :
 rise in temperature of a room
 increasing day light at the dawn
 change in speed of a car
 and many other daily life processes.
All these processes change from one initial condition to the last one in a
steady and continuous manner. Temperature may vary in very short duration
but it will change by passing through all the rational and irrational numbers
between two points
 Analog and Digital Quantities

Graph of an analog quantity (temperature versus time)

An analog Electronic System
 A public address system used to amplify sound so that it can be heard by large
audience is one simple example of an application of analog electronics.
 The basic diagram in figure below illustrates that sound waves, which are
analog in nature, are picked up by a microphone and converted to a small
analog voltage called the audio signal.
 This voltage varies continuously and is applied to the input of a linear
amplifier. The output of the amplifier which is an increased reproduction of
input voltage goes to the speaker (S).
 The speaker changes the amplified audio signal back to sound waves that have
a much greater volume than the original sound waves picked up by the
microphone
 Analog and Digital Quantities

 Another example, is speedometer of a car. Speedometer in cars

show the deflection of needle which is proportional to its speed.

 This needle, for example, will never move from 30 km/h to 40

km/h in a single step.

 Rather it will mover in a steady manner and will pass through all

the steps between these two limits.

 The same phenomenon repeats when the car decreases its speed.
 Analog and Digital Quantities
Digital Quantities:
 On the other side, digital quantities are discrete or discontinuous.
While considering the above mentioned example of change in
temperature, digital system will take information (correct value
of temperature) at certain defined times and display it in the form
of digits
 If temperature changes from 0oC to 10oC in 10 minutes, the
digital system will take information samples at certain times and
display them.
 Let us consider the following table of temperature readings taken
by certain digital system.
 Analog and Digital Quantities

This table does not give any information about the change in temperature
between 0 – 2 minutes time. It only shows that the temperature was 0oC at start of
measurement (i.e; 0 minutes) and was 2oC after 2 minutes time. This sort of data
is called discrete or discontinuous and systems providing such data are called
digital systems. Although the temperature is analog quantity, it is represented in a
discrete manner here.
 Analog and Digital Quantities

Digital system advantages

1. Digital system have small size.
2. Digital systems are generally easier to design.
3. Information storage is easy.
4. Accuracy is greater.
5. Operation can be programmed.
6. Digital circuits are not affected by noise.
7. More digital circuitry can be fabricated on IC chips.
8. Transmitted more efficiently and reliably than analog data.
9. Digital data can be processed.
 Analog and Digital Quantities
A system using Digital and Analog methods
 The compact disk (CD) player is an example of a system in which both
digital and analog circuits are used.
 The simplified block diagram in the figure below illustrates the basic
principle. Music in digital form is stored on the compact disk.
 A leaser diode optical system picked up the digital data from the rotating
disk and transfers it to the digital-to-analog converter (DAC)
 Analog to Digital Converter

Analog to Digital converter

Connecting digital circuitry to sensor devices is simple if the
sensor devices are digital themselves. Switches, relays, and
encoders are easily interfaced with gate circuits due to the on/off
nature of their signals.
However, when analog devices are involved, interfacing becomes
much more complex. What is needed to translate analog signals
into digital (binary) quantities. An analog-to-digital converter
performs the task.
 Analog to Digital Converter

An ADC inputs an analog electrical signal such as voltage or

current and outputs a binary number. In block diagram form, it can
be represented like this:
 Analog to Digital Converter
ADC process
2 steps
1. Sampling and Holding (S/H)
2. Quantizing and Encoding (Q/E)
 Analog to Digital Converter
1. Sampling and Holding (S/H)
Need to Sample an analog signal Then
convert to digital by A/D converter

The process of periodically sampling an analog

signal.
a) Sample-and-hold (S/H) circuit. The switch
closes for a small part (t seconds) of every
clock period (T).
b) Input signal waveform.
c) Sampling signal (control signal for the switch)
d) Output signal (to be fed to A/D converter).
31
 Analog to Digital Converter

Another example of sample and hold signal

Sample-and-hold (S/H) circuit

 Analog to Digital Converter
2. Quantizing and Encoding
 Quantization
Quantization is to convert the input voltage range into 2n bands to
encode a continuous analog signal to discrete digital levels.

The number of possible states that the converter can output is: N=2n

where n is the number of bits in the AD converter

Example: For a 3 bit A/D converter, N=23=8.

Analog quantization size is

Q=(Vmax-Vmin)/N
 Analog to Digital Converter

Resolution
The smallest change in analog signal that will result in a
change in the digital output.
 Analog to Digital Converter
1-bit Analog-to-Digital Conversion
• A comparator is the most basic ADC
• This is a 1-bit Flash ADC
Vin
C Out 1 Volt
Vref

Comparator 1

Vref =. 5 V
Out = 0 if Vin < Vref
= 1 if Vin > Vref 0

0 Volt
1 1 Vin VOut
resolution = N
 1
2 2
= 0.5 V
 Analog to Digital Converter
3-bit Analog-to-Digital Conversion
N-bit
Analog Digital Output
Input
N-bit 3-bit ADC Scale
ADC 1 Volt
111
. 875
110
. 75 Volt
101
. 625
100
1 1 .5V
resolution = N  3 . 375
011
2 2 010
. 25 V
= 0.125 V 001
. 125
000
0 Volt
Analog Input Signal Digital Output Code
 Analog to Digital Converter
Example:
a 3 bit A/D - signals 0-10V

Output Discrete Voltage

 N=23=8 States Ranges (V)
 0-10V signals. 0 0.00-1.25
1 1.25-2.50
Analog quantization 2 2.50-3.75
size:
3 3.75-5.00
Q=(Vmax-Vmin)/N =
(10V – 0V)/8 = 1.25V 4 5.00-6.25
5 6.25-7.50
6 7.50-8.75
7 8.75-10.0
 Analog to Digital Converter
Encoding
give value to each state
Output Output Binary Discrete Voltage
States Equivalent Ranges (V)
0 000 0.00-1.25
1 001 1.25-2.50
2 010 2.50-3.75
3 011 3.75-5.00
4 100 5.00-6.25
5 101 6.25-7.50
6 110 7.50-8.75
7 111 8.75-10.0
 Analog to Digital Converter

Accuracy of A/D Conversion

There are two ways to best improve the accuracy
of A/D conversion

1. increasing the resolution which improves the

accuracy in measuring the amplitude of the
analog signal.

2. increasing the sampling rate which increases

the maximum frequency that can be measured.
Analog to Digital Converter