1) MAXWELL Bridges:

A Maxwell bridge (in long form, a Maxwell-Wien bridge) is a type of Wheatstone

bridge used to measure an unknown inductance (usually of low Q value) in terms of
calibrated resistance and capacitance. It is a real product bridge.

2)
The Wien bridge is a type of bridge circuit that was developed by Max Wien in 1891.[1] The bridge
comprises four resistors and twocapacitors.
Bridge circuits were a common way of measuring component values by comparing them to known
values. Often an unknown component would be put in one arm of a bridge, and then the bridge
would be nulled by adjusting the other arms or changing the frequency of the voltage source. See,
for example, the Wheatstone bridge.
The Wien bridge is one of many common bridges.[2] Wien's bridge is used for precison measurement
of capacitance in terms of resistance and frequency.[3] It was also used to measure audio
frequencies.
The Wien bridge does not require equal values of R or C. At some frequency, the reactance of the
series R2C2 arm will be an exact multiple of the shunt RxCx arm. If the two R3 and R4 arms are
adjusted to the same ratio, then the bridge is balanced.
The bridge is balanced when:[4]

and
The equations simplify if one chooses R2 = Rx and C2 = Cx; the result is R4 = 2 R3.
In practice, the values of R and C will never be exactly equal, but the equations above show that
for fixed values in the 2 and x arms, the bridge will balance at some and some ratio of R4/R3.

3) HAY bridge:

Maxwell bridge is only suitable for measuring medium

quality factor coils however it is not suitable for measuring
high quality factor (Q > 10). In order to to overcome from this
limitation we need to do modification in Maxwell bridge so
that it will become suitable for measuring Q factor over a
wide range. This modified Maxwell bridge is known as Hay's
bridge.
Or we say that Hay's bridge circuit is most suitable for high
inductor measurement.

Advantages of Hay's Bridge

(1) The bridge gives very simple expression for the calculation of unknown
inductor of high value. The Hay's bridge require low value of r4 while

Maxwell bridge requires high value of r4. Now let us analyse why should put
low value of r4 in this bridge:

Consider the expression of quality factor,

As r4 presents in the denominator hence for high quality factor, r 4 must be
small.
Disadvantages of Hay's Bridge

Hay's bridge is not suitable for measurement of quality factor (Q<10) for
Q<10 we should use Maxwell bridge.

4) Owen bridge:

5) Advantages of Owen's Bridge

6) (1) The for inductor l1 that we have derived above is quite simple and is
independent of frequency component.
7) (2) This bridge is useful for the measurement of inductor over wide
range.
8) Disadvantages of Owen's Bridge

9) (1) In this bridge we have used variable standard capacitor which is

quite expensive item and also the accuracy of this is about only one
percent.
10)
(2) As the measuring quality factor increases the value of
standard capacitor required increases thus expenditure in making this
bridge increases.
5) Schering Bridge
The Schering Bridge is an electrical circuit used for measuring the insulating properties of electrical
cables and equipment.[1] It is an AC bridge circuit, developed by Harald Schering. It has the
advantage that the balance equation is independent of frequency.