Wheatstone bridge

Wien bridge
Maxwell bridge

H bridge

Fontana bridge
Diode bridge

Kelvin bridge
 Lattice bridge

Bridged T circuit

Carey Foster bridge

Wien bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wien bridge schematic

The Wien bridge is a type of bridge circuit that was developed by Max Wien in 1891.[1] The
bridge comprises four resistors and two capacitors.

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.

Maxwell bridge
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A Maxwell bridge

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.

It uses the principle that the positive phase angle of an inductive impedance can be compensated
by the negative phase angle of a capacitive impedance when put in the opposite arm and the
circuit is at resonance; i.e., no potential difference across the detector and hence no current
flowing through it. The unknown inductance then becomes known in terms of this capacitance.

With reference to the picture, in a typical application and are known fixed entities, and
and are known variable entities. and are adjusted until the bridge is balanced.

and can then be calculated based on the values of the other components:

To avoid the difficulties associated with determining the precise value of a variable capacitance,
sometimes a fixed-value capacitor will be installed and more than one resistor will be made
variable. It cannot be used for the measurement of high Q values. It is also unsuited for the coils
with low Q values, less than one, because of balance convergence problem. Its use is limited to
the measurement of low Q values from 1 to 10.

The additional complexity of using a Maxwell bridge over simpler bridge types is warranted in
circumstances where either the mutual inductance between the load and the known bridge
entities, or stray electromagnetic interference, distorts the measurement results. The capacitive
reactance in the bridge will exactly oppose the inductive reactance of the load when the bridge is
balanced, allowing the load's resistance and reactance to be reliably determined.

H bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Structure of an H bridge (highlighted in red)

An H bridge is an electronic circuit that enables a voltage to be applied across a load in either
direction. These circuits are often used in robotics and other applications to allow DC motors to
run forwards and backwards.[1]

Most DC-to-AC converters (power inverters), most AC/AC converters, the DC-to-DC pushpull
converter, most motor controllers, and many other kinds of power electronics use H bridges. In
particular, a bipolar stepper motor is almost invariably driven by a motor controller containing
two H bridges.

Contents

1 General
2 Operation
3 Construction
o 3.1 Relays
o 3.2 N and P channel semiconductors
o 3.3 N channel-only semiconductors
o 3.4 Variants
o 3.5 Commercially available
4 Operation as an inverter
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
 o 7.1 Projects

General

H bridges are available as integrated circuits, or can be built from discrete components.[1]

The term H bridge is derived from the typical graphical representation of such a circuit. An H
bridge is built with four switches (solid-state or mechanical). When the switches S1 and S4
(according to the first figure) are closed (and S2 and S3 are open) a positive voltage will be
applied across the motor. By opening S1 and S4 switches and closing S2 and S3 switches, this
voltage is reversed, allowing reverse operation of the motor.

Using the nomenclature above, the switches S1 and S2 should never be closed at the same time,
as this would cause a short circuit on the input voltage source. The same applies to the switches
S3 and S4. This condition is known as shoot-through.

Operation

The two basic states of an H bridge

The H-bridge arrangement is generally used to reverse the polarity of the motor, but can also be
used to 'brake' the motor, where the motor comes to a sudden stop, as the motor's terminals are
shorted, or to let the motor 'free run' to a stop, as the motor is effectively disconnected from the
circuit. The following table summarises operation, with S1-S4 corresponding to the diagram
above.

Structure of an H bridge (highlighted in red)

S1 S2 S3 S4 Result
1 0 0 1 Motor moves right

0 1 1 0 Motor moves left

0 0 0 0 Motor free runs

0 1 0 1 Motor brakes

1 0 1 0 Motor brakes

1 1 0 0 Shoot-through

0 0 1 1 Shoot-through

1 1 1 1 Shoot-through

Construction

L298 dual H bridge motor driver

Relays

A way to build an H bridge is use an array of relays from a relay board [2]

A "double pole double throw" relay can generally achieve the same electrical functionality as an
H bridge (considering the usual function of the device). However a semiconductor-based H
bridge would be preferable to the relay where a smaller physical size, high speed switching, or
low driving voltage is needed, or where the wearing out of mechanical parts is undesirable.

N and P channel semiconductors

A solid-state H bridge is typically constructed using opposite polarity devices, such as PNP BJTs
or P-channel MOSFETs connected to the high voltage bus and NPN BJTs or N-channel
MOSFETs connected to the low voltage bus.
N channel-only semiconductors

The most efficient MOSFET designs use N-channel MOSFETs on both the high side and low
side because they typically have a third of the ON resistance of P-channel MOSFETs. This
requires a more complex design since the gates of the high side MOSFETs must be driven
positive with respect to the DC supply rail. Many integrated circuit MOSFET gate drivers
include a charge pump within the device to achieve this.

Alternatively, a switched-mode DCDC converter can be used to provide isolated ('floating')

supplies to the gate drive circuitry. A multiple-output flyback converter is well-suited to this
application.

Another method for driving MOSFET-bridges is the use of a specialised transformer known as a
GDT (Gate Drive Transformer), which gives the isolated outputs for driving the upper FETs
gates. The transformer core is usually a ferrite toroid, with 1:1 or 4:9 winding ratio. However,
this method can only be used with high frequency signals. The design of the transformer is also
very important, as the leakage inductance should be minimized, or cross conduction may occur.
The outputs of the transformer also need to be usually clamped by Zener diodes, because high
voltage spikes could destroy the MOSFET gates.

Variants

A common variation of this circuit uses just the two transistors on one side of the load, similar to
a class AB amplifier. Such a configuration is called a "half bridge".[3] The half bridge is used in
some switched-mode power supplies that use synchronous rectifiers and in switching amplifiers.
The half-H bridge type is commonly abbreviated to "Half-H" to distinguish it from full ("Full-
H") H bridges. Another common variation, adding a third 'leg' to the bridge, creates a three-phase
inverter. The three-phase inverter is the core of any AC motor drive.

A further variation is the half-controlled bridge, where the low-side switching device on one side
of the bridge, and the high-side switching device on the opposite side of the bridge, are each
replaced with diodes. This eliminates the shoot-through failure mode, and is commonly used to
drive variable or switched reluctance machines and actuators where bi-directional current flow is
not required.

Commercially available

There are many commercially available inexpensive single and dual H-bridge packages, and
L293x series are the most common ones. Few packages, like L9110,[4] have built-in flyback
diodes for back EMF protection.

Operation as an inverter

A common use of the H bridge is an inverter. The arrangement is sometimes known as a single-
phase bridge inverter.
The H bridge with a DC supply will generate a square wave voltage waveform across the load.
For a purely inductive load, the current waveform would be a triangle wave, with its peak
depending on the inductance, switching frequency, and input voltage.

Fontana bridge

A Fontana bridge is a type of bridge circuit that implements a wide frequency band voltage-to-
current converter. The converter is characterized by a combination of positive and negative
feedback loops, implicit in this bridge configuration. This feature allows compensation for
parasitic impedance connected in parallel with the useful load , which in turn keeps an
excitation current flowing through the useful load independent of the instantaneous value
of . This feature is of great advantage for making electromechanical transducers.
If balance condition:

is met, then:

The circuit includes two differential amplifiers. The top differential amplifier, whose output is
referred to ground potential, has unitary gain. The bottom differential amplifier, whose output is
referred to ground potential, has ideally infinite gain. Ordinary operational amplifiers can be
adopted with limitations in accuracy and bandwidth. The Fontana bridge is also called
Compensated Current Injection Circuit. It was originally discovered by Giorgio Fontana,
University of Trento, Italy, in 2003 using a symbolic equation solver for kirchhoff's circuit laws.
The bridge details are available in.[1]

Carey Foster bridge

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citations. (January 2013)

In electronics, the Carey Foster bridge is a bridge circuit used to measure low resistances, or to
measure small differences between two large resistances. It was invented by Carey Foster as a
variant on the Wheatstone bridge. He first described it in his 1872 paper "On a Modified Form of
Wheatstone's Bridge, and Methods of Measuring Small Resistances" (Telegraph Engineer's
Journal, 18721873, 1, 196).

Contents

1 Use
o 1.1 To measure
2 Theory
3 References
Use

The Carey Foster bridge. The thick-edged areas are busbars of almost zero resistance.

In the diagram to the right, X and Y are resistances to be compared. P and Q are nearly equal
resistances, forming the other half of the bridge. The bridge wire EF has a jockey contact D
placed along it and is slid until the galvanometer G measures zero. The thick-bordered areas are
thick copper busbars of almost zero resistance.

1. Place a known resistance in position Y.

2. Place the unknown resistance in position X.
3. Adjust the contact D along the bridge wire EF so as to null the galvanometer. This position (as a
percentage of distance from E to F) is l1.
4. Swap X and Y. Adjust D to the new null point. This position is l2.
5. If the resistance of the wire per percentage is , then the resistance difference is the resistance
of the length of bridge wire between l1 and l2:

To measure a low unknown resistance X, replace Y with a copper busbar that can be assumed to
be of zero resistance.

In practical use, when the bridge is unbalanced, the galvanometer is shunted with a low
resistance to avoid burning it out. It is only used at full sensitivity when the anticipated
measurement is close to the null point.

To measure

To measure the unit resistance of the bridge wire EF, put a known resistance (e.g., a standard 1
ohm resistance) that is less than that of the wire as X, and a copper busbar of assumed zero
resistance as Y.

Theory

Two resistances to be compared, X and Y, are connected in series with the bridge wire. Thus,
considered as a Wheatstone bridge, the two resistances are X plus a length of bridge wire, and Y
plus the remaining bridge wire. The two remaining arms are the nearly equal resistances P and Q,
connected in the inner gaps of the bridge.

A standard Wheatstone bridge for comparison. Points A, B, C and D in both circuit diagrams correspond.
X and Y correspond to R1 and R2, P and Q correspond to R3 and RX. Note that with the Carey Foster
bridge, we are measuring R1 rather than RX.

Let l1 be the null point D on the bridge wire EF in percent. is the unknown left-side extra
resistance EX and is the unknown right-side extra resistance FY, and is the resistance per
percent length of the bridge wire:

and add 1 to each side:

(equation 1)

Now swap X and Y. l2 is the new null point reading in percent:

and add 1 to each side:

(equation 2)

Equations 1 and 2 have the same left-hand side and the same numerator on the right-hand side,
meaning the denominator on the right-hand side must also be equal:
Thus: the difference between X and Y is the resistance of the bridge wire between l1 and l2.

The bridge is most sensitive when P, Q, X and Y are all of comparable magnitude.