IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement

Technology Conference
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, May 18-21,1998

Application of an FFT-based algorithm to signal processing

of LVDT position sensors
D. Crescini, A. Flammini, D. Marioli, A. Taroni
Department of Electronics for Automation
University of Brescia, via Branze 38
25123 Brescia (Italy)
Phone (+39-30)371 5627, Fax (+39-30)380014, E-Mail: flammini@b.bsina.ina.unibs.it

Abstract - This paper presents a new method for signal
processing of Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LWlJ
position sensors. The metho4 based on a spectral estimation of
the differential secondary signal, has been implemented using a
Jloating point Digital Signal Processor (DSP) and a fourteen-bit
Analog Interface Circuit (AIC) to generate the primury signal and
lo process the primary and the secondary signals. The resulting
accuracy improves fi compared with the classic solution based on
synclironous demodulation Besides, the no need of heavy
filtering, except for the antialiasing function, can decrease the
measuring time and offers diagnostic capability.
I. INTRODUCTION
The Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) has
found many applications in industrial field as a displacement
sensor. thanks to its good characteristics in term of linearity,
resolution, repeatability and reliability. When an AC carrier
estivation e,, is applied to the primary, the LVDT produces an
electrical output e, proportional to the displacement x of a
separate movable core. Two identical secondary windings,
symmetrically spaced from the primary, are usually connected
in a series-opposing circuit, as shown in Fig. 1.
The characteristics that limit the LVDT linearity to about
0.1% referred to the full scale (FS) are mainly the temperature
effects (the expansion of the LVDT materials and the increase
of the primary impedance: when temperature increases), the
magnetic interference and the null voltage. Null voltage is due
to many factors: an unblalance in the phase and voltage
characteristics of the two secondary windings, the
magnetically produced harmonic distortion in the output
voltage, the capacitive coupling between the primary and
secondary circuits.
The traditional technique of LVDT signal processing performs
a synchronous demodulation between the primary signal and
the differential secondary voltage [l]. This choice allows
limiting the effect of that noise whose frequency is different
from the frequency of the carrier. To increase accuracy a
constant-current excitation [2] is recommended: in fact
constant-voltage excitabion suffers from temperature
dependency and requires slhort and shielded cables.
Most of LVDTs presents a phase difference 4 between the
signal applied to the primary and the signal resulting from the
difference between the two secondaries. This angle $ is lightly
variable according to the point of work and this involves a
lecture affected by error; in fact the synchronous demodulation
and filtering generate a continuous component, that is
proportional to the displacement x(t) by the sensitivity S
multiplied by the cosine of the phase difference 4. If the signal
applied to the primary is a normalized cosine cos(wt), the

t'=
filter input signal y(t) is:
:e,-e,
y(t) = s*x(t)*cos(wt+~)*cos(wt) =
= S*X(t)*COS(+)/2+ s~*x(t)*cos(2wt++)/2 (1)
L L I
Recently some digital techniques have been developed which
11 MOTION provide a greater accuracy, but they maintain the same
dependence by cos($) [3]. Near the null point, that is for
measurement within 5%FIS, the variability of cos($) increases
sensibly and moreover, siince the differential secondary signal
Iig. I Typical connection of a LVDT
is heavily affected by noise, measuring the cos($) to make a
compensation is difficult. To avoid this problem, the

(0-7803-4797-8/98/$10.001998 IEEE) 887

synchronous demodulation can be substituted with a sort of and a feedforward phase, as shown in Fig. 2, where x(n) are
autocorrelation, as the AD598 chip operates; nevertheless, the samples, Q. is the output of the feedback phase after
other assumptions limit the accuracy, as considering the s u m processing the n& sample and yk(N) is the k* point of the
of the two secondaries independent on the position of the frequency spectrum composed by N=2' points.
nucleus of the LVDT. The cos(+) correction can be avoided
without introducing additional suppositions if the spectral
technique is adopted. To perform a ratiometric measurement,
the displacement can be related with the ratio between the
fundamental of the differential secondary voltage and the
fundamental of the primary signal.

11. DESIGN PRINCIPLE

Qn-I
A DSP-based system, that generates the sinusoidal carrier at
the primary windings and acquires and processes the
differential secondary signal, is presented. The information
about the displacement is in the ratio between the fundamental
coefk = Zcos(2nklN) L;=lc-'
of the differential secondary voltage and the fundamental of
the primary signal. Both the signals can be filtered to avoid
aliasing and then processed by a Fast Fourier Transform
(FFT): if a sinusoidal carrier of frequency fp is applied at the
primary winding, the fundamental of each processed signal
can be calculated just taking the spectrum value for f= f,. As
for the synchronous demodulation, only the noise with
frequency f, can affect the measurement. Working in the
frequency domain gives the advantage to avoid the
dependence on cos($), where $ is the phase angle between the
Fig. 2' The Goertzel algorithm:feedback phase (a) and feedforwardphase @)
primary and the differential secondary voltage. Besides, by
evaluating the whole spectrum, it is possible to obtain
diagnostic information, as the magnetization of the core, eddy In the following we suppose to compute the square magnitudes
currents, or the presence of low frequency vibrations. of the 59thpoint, called ys9(1024),of the frequency spectrum
When spectral estimation [4,5] is used, the main problem is composed by 1024 points. During the feedback phase, that can
the computational load. If great accuracy is required, a large be executed while acquiring the samples, two intermediate
nuinber of sample is to be considered. Besides, the frequency values Q. and Qml are stored in memory: their values are
spectrum is discrete and generally does not include the exact evaluated as shown in equation (3)
value f, of the carrier, requiring complex windowing and
interpolation techniques as a consequence. If 2" samples of a Q. = coefs9Q..I - Qb2+ x(n) =
sinusoidal signal at frequency f, have been acquired at = 2*cos(2n59/1024)*Qn.,- Qn.*+ x(n) (3)
sampling frequency f., the 2" frequency points fk of the
spectrum are: being Q.I = Q.? =O. The feedforward phase occurs once after
the feedback phase has been performed for N input samples.
The square magnitude of ~ ~ ~ ( 1 0 is
2 4calculated
) as indicated
in equation (4).
If the sinusoidal signal applied at the primary coil respects
equation 2, that is f, = k*fJ2", the window period Tw=2"/f,is
equal to a multiple, by k, of periods of the signal (2"/f,=Mf,), l ~ ~ ~ ( 1 0 2=4 ) 1 ~ + Q.22 - C O ~ ~ ~ ~ Q N . ~ Q N . (4)
~
avoiding spectral leakage. The simple rectangular window can To perform the root square the algorithm of Newton-Raphson
be used and only the kb point of the spectrum has to be can be used. In this way the most of calculation can be
computed. In this case it is convenient to apply the Goertzel performed during the sampling phase and the total measuring
algorithm instead of computing the FFT related to the whole time can be reduced. Besides, few variables are required if
spectrum. The Goertzel algorithm [6] can be split in two compared with the FFT algorithm. To get the Goertzel
phases: a feedback phase, that performs a second degree filter,

888
algorithm usable for more values of the carrier frequency 5, The method of assembling the LVDT core is shown in Fig. 3:
more values of coefk must be available. For this purpose the the 197-101 Mytutoio micrometer screw allows 5pm as the
same look-up table, that is used to generate the sinusoidal resolution, while the 2 119F Mytutoio micrometer-comparator
signal applied to the primary winding, can be used. has a resolution of 1pm.
The sign of the displacement can be deduced from the phase
angle between primary and secondary signals, that is by
computing the continuos component of the product between
primary and secondary signals that have been sampled
simultaneously.
In this way the computational load is not so heavy, making
suitable a future ASIC (Application Specific Integrated
Circuit) implementation. Much attention must be paid to the -V

quantisation error due to the number B of bits of the ADC

(Analog to Digital Converter) and to the finite number N=2
of samples.
To evaluate how performance changes when B or n are varied,
a computer program has been developed to generate a
sinusoidal signal with frequency fp=k*fJ2,with k set to the
best value to obtain fPc2.5kHz:this signal has been sampled at
frequency 6, supposing a B-bit ADC, and processed by the
Goertzel algorithm with N=2. Table 1 shows the
approximationerror in per cent referred to the full scale.

Fig. 3 Assembling of the LVDT

The algorithm has been implemented on a board with a DSP

Table 1 Approximation error in per cent referred to the full scale
A good choice of B and n values has to intermediate between
keeping short the measuring time (n small) and obtaining a
satisfactory accuracy (n and B large). If a B-bit ADC has been
TMS32OC31 running at 50lvlhz and a AIC (Analog Interface
Circuit) TLC32040, composed by a fourteen-bit DAC (Digital
to Analog Converter) followed by a reconstruction filter and
two multiplexed channels with band-pass filter and fourteen-
bit ADC. Fig. 4 shows the block schematic of the circuit.
~ ---.,
i LVDT

chosen, n can be selected to make negligible the

approximation error if compared with the error due to the -L
DSP
ADC resolution: for example if a fourteen bit ADC is used,
1/214=6.lE-05=6.1E-O3%FS and therefore n can be set to 10.

111. RESULTS

To validate the method, a Schaevitz E-200-D LVDT has been
used. Its main characteristics are:
- nominal linear range of core displacement= f5mm
- linearity = 0.5%FS
- primary excitation = 6.3Vrms (max.), 50Hz-10kHz
- sensitivity = 23.6mV/mm/V (60Hz)
- primary impedance = 6 9 0 (6OHz)
- secondary impedance = 2 5 0 0 (60Hz)
Fig. 4 Schematic of the implemented1circuit.
Being f, = OMHd(40*;!8) = 44.64kHz the sampling
frequency of the ADC, thle carrier frequency f, has been
chosen to respect equation 2 and to work around the zero-
phase-angle frequency (ordinarily in the range of lkHz to
5kHZ), where sensitivity is about constant. The frequency f,
has been set to 2.572kHz=k*fJ2, with k=59 and n=10. To

889
generate the sinusoidal signal at frequency fp, using the D/A
converter with f, as the updating frequency, a look-up table
with 2=1024 entries has been used. The seven-order
reconstruction filter of the AIC has been set with a cut-off
frequency of 8.lkHz. A power amplifier and a voltage to
current converter have been provided to supply the primary
winding. The differential secondary signal has been acquired
through an AD625 instrumentation amplifier (IA), than it has
been filtered with the seven-order pass-band filter of the AIC
(300HzIf<8.1kHz). To better evaluate the method near the
null point, the gain of the instrumentation amplifier can be
changed between 1 and 10.
The uncertainty of the primary signal, in terms of amplitude
V, and frequency f,, has been evaluated with 100 consecutive
The repeatability of the amplitude of the differential secondary
signal, equal to 0.04%, has been evaluated as the standard
deviation, in per cent with respect to the mean value, of 100
measurements performed by the DSP, moving each time the
core from the null points to half scale, that is 2.5. As Fig.
6 shows, the HD of the diEerentia1 secondary signal is greater
than the one of the primary signal, especially near the null
point. This fact is mainly due to the third harmonic, whose
measurement can provide diagnostic information, as magnetic
material saturation [7].
I 0.03 , I

measurements. The mean value of the frequency f,, measured

with a PM6680 500ps/225MHz Timerlcounter, is
2572.245Hq with respect to the expected value of
2572.196Hz; standard deviation is O.O02Hz, corresponding to
about lppm. The standard deviation of the amplitude V,,
computed for 100 consecutive measurement by the Goertzel
algorithm implemented on the DSP with core displacement of - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 0 1 2 3 4 5
2.5mm, is about 0.01% with respect to the mean value of
5.908V. The amplitude of the primary signal does not depend
on the displacement: if 21 measurement are performed by the
I Displacement [ mm ]

DSP, corresponding to equally spaced points in the

displacement range, the maximum deviation in per cent with Fig. 6 Harmonic distorsion (HD) ofthe differential secondary signal as a
function of the core displacement
respect to the mean value is about 0.04%. We define the
harmonic distortion HD as:
Fig. 7 shows the DSP output Xout@SP) as a function of the
HD = 100*(E(2fp)+E(3f,))/ (E(fp)+E(2f,)+E(3f,))
displacement x, measured with the micrometer-comparator:
Xout@SP) is the estimated displacement by the least square
Where E(0 is the energy of the fundamental frequency, that is
line (5), that is Xout@SP)=(X,(f,)/&(f,)-q)/m,with X(f,) and
E(f)=21X(f)lZ/N,with N=1024 and X(Q as the amplitude of the
&(fJ as the amplitude of the spectrum of the differential
frequency spectrum. Fig. 5 shows how HD changes when the
secondary signal and of the primary signal rispectively.
core displacement changes. The uncertainty of the HD
measurement is about 0.0005 %.
5.0

0.005 , 1 .................................................
.........................
4.0
3.0
2.0
-
E
.............................
1.0
0.0
5&
...............................
-1.0 B
........................ ............................. -2.0 a
X
............................... -3.0
-4.0
-5.0
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 -1 2 3 4 5
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Displacement x [mm]
Displaceme nt [mm]
-)cout(DsP) [mm]-+-Enor DSP [%FS]

Fig 5 Harmonic distorsion (HD) of the pnmary signal as a fimction of the core Fig. 7 Least squares linearity of the measurementXout(DSP) performed by the
displacement spectral estimation method.
, .

890
 = m*x+q = 0.10824*x + 0.012239 ( 5 )
X9(fp)/&(fp) About the same results c,an be obtained if the end point
linearity is considered. All the measurements have been
As a comparison, performances have been evaluated in two performed when the gain of the instrumentation amplifier is
other ways: by measuring the differential secondary voltage, set to one: if auto-ranging is used, performances near the null
Vout(HP), at the output of the instrumentation amplifier with point can be improved.
a HP34401A multimeter, with about 0.04% as the AC Since 0.5%FS is the linearity of the LVDT, performances of
measurement accuracy, and by means of a traditional AD598 the traditional method, based on the AD598 device, and of the
device plus a DC precision multimeter (Vout(AD598)). new method, based on spectral estimation performed by a
Fig 8 shows the linearity error evaluated for the three DSP, have been related taking the measurement made by the
methods in the linear range and near the null point: its AC multimeter as the reference. Fig. 9 shows that the DSP
maximum value changes from about 0.8O/oFS for the AD598 to solution is more similar to the expensive high performance
about 0.4Y4FS for the DSP or the AC multimeter. solution taken as a reference.

1 1 , i

....................i..........j .......... j ..........i_ _ _ _

..........
___ i..........
_._~ j ..........j ..........

0.6
0.4
2 0.2 .....................................................

lii 0
2
-0.2 ....................

-0.6 ! , I I I i -0.4 t
- 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Displacement x [mm] - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 0 1 2 3 4
Vout(HP) M
0.3 , 1

0.2
..... .....................

...........................................................................................................

-0.4 I I
0 0.1 0.2
0.3 0.4 0.5
Displacement x [mm]
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
03
Vout(HP) [VI
02
01

4
0.1 ...............................................................................................
0
I-+*-
............................................ .-. .........................................................

4 -0.1
-02
-0.3 Y
......... ..._....... I ........ ................ ........
Y Y
I
-0 1
-0.2
.......................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................
........................................................................................................

-. , .................

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 -0.6

Displacement x [I 0.08 0.09 0.1 0.11 0.12
Vout(HP) M
[+Error HP [%FS]-Error DSP [ I F S ] +ErrorAD598 [%FS
[-+Error DSP [%FS] -+Error AD598 [%FS] I
Fig. 8 Least squares linearity of the three methods in the linear range
(FS= lonun) Fig. 9 Least squares lineary taking Vout(HP) as a reference

891
 IV. CONCLUSIONS

A new method to signal processing of LVDT, based on a

spectral estimation of the dflerential secondary signal, has
been developed. Working in the frequency domain, it is
possible to avoid the dependence on cos(+), where is the +
phase difference between the signal applied to the primary and
the differential secondary signal. Applying the Goertzel
algorithm and choosing the frequency of the carrier as a
function of the sampling frequency, the computational load
can be dramatically reduced, getting suitable an ASIC
implementation. The time for the elaboration of the signal is
practically included in the time of acquisition of the samples,
equal to 23ms. Experimental results, in terms of linearity
error, are less than O.S%FS, which is the intrinsic limit of the
used LVDT The new method has been related with the
traditional method based on the AD598 device, reducing to a
half the linearity error, and with the expensive solution based
on a high cost AC multimeter: taking as the reference the
measurement performed by the AC multimeter, the linearity
error is about l%FS for the AD598 and O.l%FS for the new
DSP-based solution.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The contribution of S . Bocchio to the laboratory work is

greatly acknowledged.

REFERENCES

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Publishing Company Inc., Reston, Virginia, 1984
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Engineering, Pennsauken, N. J., 1972
F., Yassa, S . Garvericks, Multichannel Digital demodulator for
LVDTIRVDT Position Sensors IEEE J . ofSolid-State Circuits, Vol. 25,
No.2, APRIL 1990, pp.441-45
A. V., Oppenheim, P. C., Shafer, Discrete Time Signal Processing,
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1989
V. K., Jim, W. L. Collins JR., D. C., Davis, High-accuracy analog
measurements via interpolated FFT, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., Vol.
IM-28,No.2, June 1979
The applications engineering Staff of Analog Devices, DSP division, by A
Mar, Digital signal processing applications using the ADSP-2100family,
vol. 1, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1990
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