CHAPTER THREE

SIGNAL CONDITIONING AND

INTERFACING CIRCUITS

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 Introduction
The output of sensors is usually small or not suitable to directly
process or present it.

Thus conditioning or suiting of the signal is necessary.

Signal conditioners are circuit that takes the output of a sensor or

transducer and converts it in to a form more suitable for further
processing or presenting.

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Some of Signal conditioners

 Amplification
 Attenuation
 Filtering (high pass, low pass, band pass, or band stop)
 Differentiation
 Integration
 Linearization
 Converting a resistance to a voltage signal (briges)

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 3.2 Deflection Bridge
The Deflection Bridge finds an extensive application in electrical
instrumentation for conditioning the output of sensors typically if the
sensor output is variation of resistance, inductance and capacitance.
The deflection bridge has four arms of impedance
Initially all impedances values of the deflection bridge are adjusted in
such a way that the measured voltage at the detector is zero
at this moment the bridge is called at balanced condition or null
condition
Mathematically At balanced condition Vo=0

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Types of Deflection Bridge

Deflection brides are classified depending up on:-

Energy source as DC or AC bridges

The impedances as resistive, or reactive (inductive, capacitive) bridges

Depending up on the number of sensors present on the bridge arm as quarter, half
and full Deflection Bridge

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(a) DC Bridges

• With a d-c galvanometer used as a detector and resistive arms the bridge becomes
a dc bridge known as Wheatstone bridge

• The Wheatstone bridge is usually used to measure resistance values ranging from
1 ohm to 1mega ohm

• For low resistance the Kelvin double bridge is used

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 (b)AC Bridges
 Based on these balance conditions various a-c bridges are used in practice under
the broad classification of capacitance and inductance bridges.

Design of Resistive Deflection Bridge

The resistive deflection bridge usually is exited by DC sources and depending up on
the number of sensors present on the bridge arm it is called as quarter, half and full
deflection Bridge. these are used to convert a variation of resistance into voltage

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Cont.
• Quarter-bridge This arrangement, with a single element of the bridge changing
resistance in response to the measured variable.
• Half-bridge This arrangement, with a two element of the bridge changing
resistance in response to the measured variable.
• Full-bridge This arrangement, with a four elements of the bridge changing
resistance in response to the measured variable.

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Cont.
• In a strain gauge, the relation between strain, gage factor and resistance is give
∆R/Ro=F Ԑ
Where F is gauge factor and Ԑ is strain, R is the unstrained resistance
∆R=F Ԑ Ro

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Effect of lead wire resistance

Practically the third wire carries no current (due to the voltmeter's

extremely high internal resistance) and its resistance will not drop
any substantial amount of voltage.

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Cont.

when the upper gauge is compressed, the lower gauge will stretched,
and vice versa we will have both gauges responding to strain, and the
bridge will be more responsive to applied force. This utilization is
known as a half-bridge.

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Increasing the sensitivity and linearity

 Alternatively, one can double the sensitivity of the bridge to strain by making both
gauges active. one bridge mounted in tension (RG + ΔR) and the other mounted in
compression (RG - ΔR). This is called half-bridge configuration yields an output
voltage that is linear and approximately doubles the output of the quarter-bridge
circuit.

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Cont.

Since both strain gauges will either increase or decrease resistance by the
same proportion in response to changes in temperature, the effects of
temperature change remain canceled and the circuit will suffer minimal
temperature-induced measurement error: Vo/Vi=-GF Ԑ /2

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 Cont.

it may be advantageous to make all four elements of the bridge "active" for even
greater sensitivity. This is called a full-bridge circuit

Quarter-bridge and half-bridge circuits provide an output (imbalance) signal that is

only approximately proportional to applied strain gauge force.

Linearity, or proportionality, of these bridge circuits is best when the amount of

resistance change due to applied force is very small compared to the nominal

With a full-bridge, however, the output voltage is directly proportional to applied

force, with no approximation.
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2. Amplifiers

Since most of the electrical signals produced by most sensors or transducers are
low voltage or power level

An Amplifier is an electronic device used to increase the size of a voltage or

current signal without changing the signals basic characteristics.

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 Operational amplifier (OPAMP)
 Opamp have two inputs indicated by – and + sign which stands for inverting and non
inverting inputs as show below.
• +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 An ideal OPAMP have characteristics of
 (a) high input amplification
 (b) high input impedance: thus current is not drawn from the input
(c) low output impedance: there is no voltage drop at the output
(d) low offset voltage: low drift

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Common opamp circuit configurations

 Voltage comparator
 Inverting amplifier
 Non inverting amplifier
 Summing amplifier
 Voltage follower
 Differential amplifier
 Integrating amplifier
 Differentiating amplifier

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a. Voltage comparator

 This is used for comparing input voltages, it is a differential amplifier

 If v2>v1 the output voltage is positive
 If v2<v1the output voltage is negative
 If v2=v1, then the output voltage is zero
b. Inverting amplifier
 The out put is an inverted (opposite polarity) form of the input
voltage

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c. Non inverting amplifier
 The out put is the non inverted form of the input

d. Summing amplifier
 The output is the sum of the input voltages

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e. Voltage follower
 The output is the same as the input. The advantage of the circuit is
lies in high input impedance avoiding loading effect that may occur; it
is also referred to as buffer circuit.

f. Differential amplifier

The output is used to amplify the difference of inputs

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Instrumentation Amplifier (INA)
An instrumentation amplifier (INA) is specially designed amplifier to
have differential gain, high input impedance, and high CMRR ratio.

• Basically it is buffered a differential amplifier so as to have high input

impedance.

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The output voltage can be easily found by analyzing the circuit

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