Web answers of Electronic Instrumentation & Measurement

Chapter-1
1. What are basic building blocks of an electronic instrument? Basic blocks of electronic instruments are as follows (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii) (ix) (x) (xi) (xii) Voltage controlled oscillators Phase locked loop Charge amplifier Programmable gain amplifier Current mirror Voltage to frequency converter Frequency to voltage converter Voltage to current converter Analog to digital converter Digital to analog converter Counter Frequency divider

3. Draw the circuit diagram of a Schmitt trigger circuit. What is the application of a Schmitt trigger circuit? Fig: 1 shows a Schmitt trigger circuit which is an inverting comparator with positive feedback (positive feedback increases the overall gain of the op-amp). Vin is a sinusoidal voltage. The reference voltage of the comparator will be either Vut or Vl t .

Vut
and

Vsat

R1 R1
R1

R2

Vl t

Vsat

( R1 R2 )

Considering Vo to be Vsat initially, the and output waveforms of the Schmitt trigger is drawn in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 respectively. In Fig. 2 the voltages Vut and Vl t are shown by dashed lines.

Vin Vut t Vlt

Fig: 2
Vo +Vsat t Vsat

Fig. 3

Since Vo

Vsat initially, reference voltage is Vut .

When Vin becomes greater than Vut ,

V o switches to Vsat and reference voltage Vlt. Again When Vin becomes less than Vlt, Vo switches
to Vsat . The output of a Schmitt trigger circuit is rectangular waveform. Schmitt trigger can also be used as a switch. In the second circuit which we shall discuss, we are going to show how a triangular waveform can be generated continuously charging and discharging a capacitor. Consider the R-C series circuit as shown in Fig. 4.
R +V

Vo
C

Vin

Vo
V

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

The input to this circuit is a rectangular waveform. During positive half-cycle of this waveform the capacitor charges up to +V giving rise to an exponentially rising waveform. During negative half cycle of the input waveform, the capacitor discharges to 0V and further charges up to V giving rise to an exponentially falling waveform. The waveform of V o has been shown in Fig. 5 by dotted line. But this Vo is not exactly triangular. Now consider we are increasing the RC time constant of the circuit.

Low RC

Vo t High RC

Fig: 6

As we increase time constant of the circuit, the value of t But, e

t RC

RC

becomes smaller.

t 1 RC
(1 t RC

1 t 2! RC
) [Since

1 t 3! RC

..........

RC

is sufficiently small, we can neglect

higher order terms]. This

(1 t RC )

is a straight line. So, with high value of RC, exponential waveform approximates

to a straight line. So, output waveform becomes triangular. In a VCO, RC circuit is used to generate a triangular waveform and Schmitt trigger is used to generate rectangular waveform. 566 is a typical VCO IC, whose block diagram and basic principle is discussed in the next section. 4. Explain the basic principle of operation of an OPAMP based Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA). Draw the circuit diagram of a PGA.
1 VSIG XOP1 3 V0 S0

+
0

R1 S1 4 R2 5 R3 S3 6 R4

S2

Fig. 1 A Typical Programmable Amplifier

A Programmable Gain Amplifier is essentially an amplifier with a special property of adjustable gain, that is, the amplifiers gain can be adjusted according to the requirement. Such type of amplifier finds its application in appliances for reading various sensors data. The data may come from various types devices like thermistors, strain gauges, photodiodes etc. So it is quite obvious the data signals received form them will be of varying magnitudes. So before supplying them to an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC), the signals has to scaled in such a way that the maximum signal from each sensor to match the maximum of the ADC. A PGA achieves this easily whose gain is conveniently changed via small collection of analog switches, resistors and logic bits. By controlling them, the resistors in the Op-Amps feedback network can be swapped effectively changing the gain. There are several ways to accomplish such arrangement. In one arrangement, the switchs ON resistance directly affects the gain while in other case, the analog switches swap the feedback resistors to change the gain. It can also be manually configured, as an user can externally operate the switches S0, S1, S2, S3 in Fig. 1 if they are present outside the system for manual control.
XOP2 1 VSI + G R11 7 0 8 V0

R12 9 S12 10

R13 11 S13

R14

S14

Fig. 2

In Fig. 2, the non-inverting amplifier of the PGA changes its gain by closing switches S12, S13 and S14 one at a time to change the feedback resistor network. The switch-gain configuration for Fig. 14 can be represented in tabular form below:Switch All Off S12 = ON S13 = ON S14 = ON Gain 1 R11/(R12 + RON)+1 R11/(R13 +RON) +1 R11/(R14+RON) +1

Chapter-2
6. Describe A.C. differential Voltmeter. Figure below shows the schematic diagram of difference amplifier type electronic voltmeters. Here Field Effect Transistors (FETs) are used to increase the input resistance of voltmeters. The FETs effectively isolates low resistance voltmeters from the measuring circuit, thus avoid loading effects.
+VDD PMMC ammeter X Rm + Y FET Q2

RD

RD

v1 +

FET Q1

10M

RS

VDD

Fig: Differential electronic voltmeter

The circuit has two FETs. Use of two FETs in differential amplifier ensures thermal stability as well as proper current gain of the circuit. Thus if source current is one of the FET increases then corresponding offset will be adjusted by the decrease in source current by the other FET. Two FETs along with drain resistors RD form a bridge, where two FETs form the lower arms of the bridge and two drain resistors RD form the upper arms. The PMMC is connected across the drain terminals of FETs representing the two corners of the bridge. Since the circuit uses identical FETs so that if input is zero as current will flow through the ammeter. If a negative d.c voltage were applied to the gate of FET Q1, the current would flow through the PMMC ammeter. Direction of current is shown in the figure. Magnitude of current is proportional to the d.c voltage across the input. We can calibrate the meter reading in terms input voltage directly in terms of volt. Let us find the relationship between the ammeter current and the input d.c voltmeter using Thevenins theorem. Let us find open circuit voltage across the X-Y terminals, further remove the PMMC meter.

+VDD

RD

X vo

RD Y

v1 + 10M

FET Q1

FET Q2

RS VDD

Fig: Circuit to find open circuit voltage vo

The output voltage is equal to

vo

gm

rd RD v1 rd RD

In order to find Thevenins equivalent resistance looking into terminals X and Y, v1 and v0 are made zero.
RD X RD rd rd Y RD

Ro

2 rd R D rd R D

Fig: Circuit to find Ro

The Thevenins equivalent circuit with PMMC ammeter is shown below

i Ro
+

Rm PMMC meter

vo

Fig: Thevenins equivalent of differential amplifier type electronic voltmeter

Current through the ammeter is

Vo Ro Rm g m rd R D ( rd R D ) v1 g m rd R D ( rd R D ) Rm

When R D

rd

g m RD . v1 2 R D Rm

7. Describe Average Responding type Voltmeter AC voltmeters are usually of the average responding type, with meter scale calibrated interims of rms value of a sine wave. Since so many waveforms in electronics are sinusoidal, this is an entirely satisfactory solution and certainly much less expensive than a rms responding voltmeter Non sinusoidal wave forms how ever will read high or low depending on the form factor of the wave form
D

a.c. input

To d.c. amplifier

Fig: Half wave average responding type voltmeter

The average voltmeter the half wave voltage is developed across the resister and applied to the input terminal of the d.c. amplifier.
D1 a . c input D3 D4 R D2

To d . c amplifier

Fig: Full wave type average responding voltmeter

Full wave rectification can be obtained by the bridge circuit as shown in the above figure where the average value of the sine wave is applied to the amplifier and meter circuit.

12. Draw a functional block diagram at a dual slope digital voltmeter?

C ei Si R eo

Comparator (Zero detector)

- er

Sr

t1 t2 O gate open t1+ t2 O gate close

Switch Drive

F/F

0000

Counter & display

Oscillator

Functional Block diagram at a dual slope type DVM.

Additional question .
What is form factor of a sinusoidal signal? The form factor is the ratio of the rms value to the average value of a wave form. It can be expressed as

Vrms Vav

1 V 2 (t ) dt T 0 2 T
T 2

V (t ) dt
0

For a sinusoidal signal

V (t ) Vm sin t
2 2 Vm sin 2 0 2

t dt

Vm sin t dt
0

2 Vm 2 [ t sin t cos t ]0 4 Vm [ cos t ]0

= 1.11

Chapter-3
2. Calculate the self-capacitance when following measurements are performed. f1 = 3 MHz; f2 = 9 MHz; C1 = 500 pf C2 = 50 pf

f2 2

3 f1 1 L(C2 Cd ) 2 3 L(C1 Cd )

as C1 Cd Cd

9(C2 Cd )

C1 9C2 8 500 9.50 8

6.25 pf

Chapter-4
2. Draw the circuit diagram of an OPAMP based I to V converter. operation of the circuit. A current to voltage converter (I to V converter) is a circuit which provides an output voltage proportional to the current input to it.
Rf i +VCC in id vd + VEE Vout

Explain the

Fig: 1 Current to voltage converter using OPAMP

Figure (1) shows an inverting configuration of current to voltage converter. and thus the output voltage can be given by,

As the input

impedance of an OpAmp is infinite, the input current completely flows through the feedback path

Vout = Rf in
Or,

Vout

in ;

which shows that the output voltage is directly proportional to the input current. 3. Explain the basic steps in measurement of low current. In this case first we have to convert the current into a corresponding proportional voltage level and then by using the circuit shown below we can measure low current. A current to voltage converter type electronic ammeter is nothing but a voltmeter with a current to voltage converter circuit in its input stage. A basic block diagram of digital ammeter of current to voltage converter type is shown below.

StageI

100 1K

StageII

IR Ii i VEE +VCC

10K

A/D Converter

Decade Converter

Digital Read Out

Fig: A digital current to voltage converter type ammeter

In the above figure, the stage I is the current to voltage converter and stage II is a simple digital voltmeter. Here the current to voltage converter has a number of feedback paths to choose for a particular input signal for proper scaling. That scaled output voltage then measured by the arrangement of stage II. This type of efforts helps to improve the compatibility of an instrument in other fields also.

Chapter-5
1. Explain how voltage and power are measured at radio frequencies? Radio frequency (RF) is essentially a.c. voltage, except that the frequencies involved are much greater than that which are encountered in power distribution, audio frequency amplifiers or control systems. Radio frequencies extended well into GHz region where it is difficult to amplify and great care must be taken because normal components are usually useless. RF voltage is measured by rectifying the alternating voltage and amplifying the resulting d.c output. The RF voltage is first rectified and then amplified as the amplification of RF signal itself is very difficult. Schottky barrier or point contact diodes are employed for rectification of RF signals. Conventional junction diodes with small geometries can be employed for lower frequencies, but most detector diodes are not PN junction diodes. There are two significant problems with diodes used for RF rectification. First most diodes have excessive capacitance and second they have excessive reverse recovery time when diodes are operated at low forward biased potentials, the rectified output does not equal the peak of the input i.e., for rather low amplitude RF voltages the resulting dc output is even lower and so a chopper stabilized amplifier or other amplifier stabilized for dc drifts is required. Figure below shows the block diagram of RF milli-voltmeter.
Range Switch Meter

PROBE Chopper Stabilized amplifier

Fig. Block diagram of RF Milli-Voltmeter

The actual RF rectifier or detector is usually mounted on a probe in order to carry out measurements with the lest amount of inter connecting RF cables, as even the losses of co-axial cable can introduce significant errors at very high frequencies. The detected output is in the very

low milli-volt region and often even lower and is amplified via a chopper-stabilized amplifier and displayed on a digital read out. The type of measurement made by the RF milli-voltmeter depends on the type of probe used. Voltages are measured with a probe similar to that shown in figure below. Voltage measurements are carried out with relatively high impedance, but some capacitance is inescapable. This probe would be used within circuits where the impedances vary and circuit cannot be isolated and terminated externally.
Schottky diode To Meter PROBE 1K 100PF

(a)
RF connector Schottky diode To Meter

50

10PF

(b) Fig. Two different RF probes for use with RF Milli-Voltmeter

Many high frequency circuits can be disconnected and terminated usually in 50

externally and

the probe shown in figure (b) is employed. This probe is more a power measuring probe rather than a voltage probe and can be employed for measuring power to the nanowatt region. This does not give a true r.m.s. measurement and so care is required to be taken in interpreting measurements, especially when the signal under measurement has modulation applied.

2. Draw the block diagram of a radio frequency Milli-Voltmeter.

Range Switch Meter

PROBE Chopper Stabilized amplifier

Fig. Block diagram of RF Milli-Voltmeter

Chapter-6
2. Describe with the block diagram, the function of an oscilloscope.
Vertical amplifier Delay Line CRT tube

Input

V V Electron gun trigger ckt Time bar generator

H H

Horizontal amplifier High voltage Low voltage

- ve

+ ve

The major block circuit of a general purpose CRO is as follows: 1) CRT 2) Horizontal Amplifier 3) Vertical Amplifier 4) Delay Line 5) Time base 6) Power Supply 7) Trigger Circuit (1) CRT: This is the cathode ray tube which emits electrons that strikes the phosphor search internally to provide a visual display at signal. (2) Horizontal Amplifier: It amplifies the sawtooth voltage before it is applied to horizontal deflection plates. (3) Vertical Amplifier: The sensitivity and bandwidth of an oscilloscope is determined by the vertical amplifiers. The gain of the vertical amplifier determines the smallest signal that the oscilloscope can satisfactorily reproduce on the CRT screen. The sensitivity of oscilloscope is directly proportional to gain of the vertical amplifier.

(4) Delay Line: Delay line is used to delay the signal for a certain span of time in vertical sections. When the delay line is not used, the part of the signal gets lost. Then the input signal is not applied directly to the vertical plates but is delayed by sometime using a delay line circuit. The signal is delayed, the sweep generator output gets enough time to reach to the Horizontal plates. There are two types of delay lines used on CRO. (a) Distributed parameter Delay line: It is basically a transmission line constructed with a wound helical coil on a mandrel and extruded insulation between it. (b) Lamped parameter delay line: Lamped parameter delay line counts at number of cascaded symmetrical LC networks. (5) Time base: Time base generates the sawtooth voltage required to reflect the beam to the horizontal section. This voltage deflects the spot at a constant time dependent rate. Thus the Yaxis on the screen can be represented as time, which helps to display and analyze time varying signal. (6) Power Supply: A voltage is required by CRT to generate and accelerate on electron beam and voltage required by other circuits at the oscilloscope like Horizontal Amplifier, vertical amplifier etc. The power supply block provides that. There are two sections at a power supply block. The High voltage section (HV) and Low voltage section (LV). The High voltages of the order of 1000 volt to 1500 volt are requited by CRT. Such high negative voltages are used for CRT. The negative high voltage has following advantages: (a) Accelerating orders and the deflection plates are clean to ground potential. This ground potential protects the operator from shocks. (b) The deflection voltages are measured with respect to ground hence blocking on coupling capacitors are not necessary. (c) Insulation between controls and chains is less. (7) Trigger Circuit: To synchronies the input signal and the sweep frequency, trigger circuit is used. It converts the incoming signal into trigger pulse. It is necessary that horizontal deflection starts at the same point of the input vertical signal each time sweeps.

4. Describe the Dual Trace Oscilloscope with its mode of operation. The block diagram of dual beam oscilloscope is shown in the following figure.
Two sets of vertical plates Channel A input Delay line A
Pre-amp and attenuator Main vertical amp

Horizontal plates CRT

Screen

Channel B Pre-amp input

Delay line B
Main vertical amp

and attenuator

A Ext 230 V 50 Hz A.C. B

Trigger selector switch

Trigger Sweep generator Hori zontal amp

Line

The oscilloscope has two vertical deflection plates and two separate channels A and B for the two separate input signals. Each channel consists of a preamplifier and an attenuator. A delay line, main vertical amplifier and a set of vertical deflection plates together forms a single channel. There is a single set of horizontal plates and single time base circuit. The sweep generator drives the horizontal amplifier which in turn drives the plates. The horizontal plates sweep both the beams across the screen at the same rate. The sweep generator can be triggered internally by the channel A signal or channel B signal. Similarly it can also be triggered from an external signal or line frequency signal. This is possible with the help of trigger selector switch, a front panel control. Such an oscilloscope may have separate time base circuit for separate channel. This allows different sweep rates for the two channels but increases the size and weight of the oscilloscope.

The dual beam oscilloscope with separate time base circuits is shown in the following figure.
Delay line A Channel A
Pre-amp and attenuator Vertical amp

Vertical plates Set 1

Channel B

Pre-amp and attenuator

Delay line B
Vertical amp Trigger Sweep generator

Vertical plates Set 2

Hori zontal amp

Ext Line

Horizontal plates

Trigger

Sweep generator

Hori zontal amp

Horizontal plates

Additional questions
Q. Define deflection sensitivity. The CRTs deflection sensitivity is defined as the deflection of the screen per unit deflection voltage. Therefore, deflection sensitivity

D Ed

Ll d m /V 2dE a

Q. What do you mean by deflection factor? Deflection factor of a CRT is defined as the reciprocal of sensitivity. Therefore, deflection factor
G 1 S 2dE a V/m Ll d

Chapter-7
2. Explain the basic principle of operation of a LED as a display device. The operation of LED is based on the phenomena of electro luminance. Electro luminance is the process of generating photon emission when the excitation of excess carriers is a result of an electric current caused by applied electric field. Electron-hole recombination takes place in a forward biased p-n junction diode. Free electrons in the conduction band make transition to the valence band giving up energy in form of light and heat. In Si and Ge diodes, most of e give up their energy in the form of heat, but in GaAsP and GaP semiconductors, the electrons give up their energy by emitting photons. If the semiconductor is transluscent, the light will be emitted and junction becomes a source of light; i.e., light emitting diode. In fact operating LEDs in reverse bias mode will quickly destroy them. LEDs may be of different type depending on the nature of the p-n junction, structure and mode of operation. In its simplest form it is a forward biased p-n junction diode with n region made hemispherical to minimize reflection loss. Such a structure is shown in Fig. 1. These type of LEDs are known as dome shaped LED and are used for digital play system.

N P

Light p n

Fig. 1(b) Symbol of LED

Fig. 1(a) Structure of a dome shaped CED

The power (optical) versus current plot in a LED is shown in Fig. 2. The characteristic is almost linear which is a desired characteristic for some applications.

Power (mw)

Current I (mA)

Fig. 2

Additional questions
Q. State the different types of display available. Commonly used displays in digital electronics and instrumentation are as follows: 1. Cathode ray tube (CRT) 2. Light Emitting Diode (LED) 3. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) 4. Gas discharge plasma display 5. Elector-Luminescent (EL) display 6. Incandescent display 7. Electro phonetic image display (EPID) 8. Liquid Vapour Display (LVD).

Chapter-8
2. Draw the circuit diagram of a gate control circuit of DFM.
Unknown Frequency Start gate B FF - 2 R S FF - 1 Schmitt Trigger A Main gate To Counter and Display Circuit

Input

Y
Y

Y
Y Pulses from Time base circuit

S R Read Pulse

A B Stop gate

Fig: DFM with Gate Control Circuit

4. Draw the block diagram of a time interval measurement system and explain its operation. The block diagram of time interval measurement is shown in figure below. There are input channels where one channel supplies the enabling pulse for the main gate where the other channel supplies the disenabling pulse. The main gate is opened at a point on the leading edge of the input signal and closed on the trailing edge of the same signal. The time elapsed between the above two events is measured by the decade counter. Since we are using a standard crystal oscillator, the counts displayed by the decade counter must be some multiple or sub multiple of the frequency of the crystal oscillator. Thus the count displayed is in a way to measure the time elapsed between opening and closing of the main gate.

Slope

Frequency trigger

Main gate To Counter and Display circuit

Attenuator and amplifier

Gate control Attenuator and amplifier Period trigger

Start

Slope

Multiple Period trigger

Crystal OSC

Schmitt trigger

10

Fig. Block diagram of time Interval Measurement

Chapter-9
1. Draw the circuit diagram of a basic wave analyzer and explain its operation. A wave analyzer is an instrument used to measure the amplitude of each harmonic or fundamental individually. A basic wave analyzer is shown below. It consist with a simple LCcircuit, a rectifier circuit and an indicating device. The LC-circuit acts as a primary detector. The capacitor of the LC-circuit is adjusted for resonance at the frequency of the particular harmonic component to be measured.
C Rectifier circuit

Input Complex Waveform

+ Meter Detector Circuit

Fig: Basic Wave analyzer

The full-wave rectifier circuit is used to obtain the average value of the harmonic component of the input signal. The indicating device is a simple dc voltmeter, which is calibrated to read the peak value of the harmonic component of the input complex waveform. The capacitance value of the LC-circuit is tuned to a single frequency. It passes only that frequency and blocks all other frequency.

Explain with the help of a block diagram the working of a Fourier Transform Spectrum Analyzers.
There are mathematical methods of calculating the spectrum of a signal if the signal were reduced to a mathematical equation or a set of data points. The most direct mathematical method is called the Fourier transform. A signal that can be represented as an equation, a graph, or a set of data points where the independent variable is time can be transformed into another equation, graph or set of data points where the variable is frequency. The transformation produces the spectrum of the waveform. If a signal is transformed into a mathematical set of data points by digitizing an analog signal, a digital computer could be programmed with a form of Fourier transform that would calculate the spectrum of the waveform. The method used to calculate the spectrum is called an algorithm, and the most efficient for a digital computer is called the fast Fourier transform (FFT). It must be remembered that with the digital FFT spectrum analyzer, the data are

digitized, after which the spectrum is calculated rather than the spectrum being derived from the actual signal present. If very sophisticated algorithms are used, the time delay from the occurrence of the actual signal and the display of the spectrum could be quite long. A sample of the signal to be analyzed is digitized using any appropriate method of analog-todigital conversion. The results of this conversion, which is a set of digital numbers representing the amplitude of the input waveform as a function of time, over a specific period of time, is stored in a memory and the spectrum is calculated from this data set. The set of numbers representing the digitized input is often called the time record of the input. Notice that the spectrum can be calculated at anytime after the analog-to-digital conversion is complete. Since the computer requires a finite amount of time to make the spectrum calculation, the actual display of the spectrum will occur some time after the input waveform was present. Compare this to the conventional spectrum analyzer described earlier in this section wherein the signal was analyzed with very little delay, only that which was necessary to propagate through the spectrum analyzer. The conventional spectrum analyzer is called a real-time spectrum analyzer, while the analyzer that uses a computer algorithm and an analog-to-digital conversion is usually called an FFT spectrum analyzer. Alternative names are digital spectrum analyzer and Fourier analyzer. The FFT spectrum analyzer can be a very powerful machine without becoming a very expensive unit, as the power of the analyzer comes from the computer algorithms, which can be enhanced without adding large amounts of hardware to the analyzer. Another advantage that is exploited to enhance the power of the FFT analyzer is the fact that the input signal is captured and frozen in time. Thus long and complex mathematical operations may be performed on the input signal. The FFT analyzer samples the input signal for a specific period of time and this is called the window. The signal to be analyzed is considered to be a periodic signal where the digitized signal within the window is repeated indefinitely. To gain an insight into how this affects the FFT spectrum analyzer, assume that a signal is sampled and digitized for a period of 1 s. The spectrum analyzer has only 1 s of data to arrive at a spectrum calculation. If the signal were a very slowly changing one, the 1 s of data would not contain as much information about the signal changes as necessary for an accurate spectrum calculation. However, if the signal were a rapidly changing signal, the 1-s sample would provide lots of data, covering many cycles of a periodic waveform, some possibly redundant, to calculate an accurate spectrum. The more data that are available, the more than can be calculated about the spectrum. A slow-changing signal is one where the signal can be described with only lowfrequency components. Rapidly changing signals require high-frequency spectral components to describe them. If 1-s of data were obtained, a spectral calculation could be generated with spectral information of resolution of 1 Hz. The FFT spectrum analyzer calculates the spectrum as if the sampled data within the window repeated indefinitely. This is because nothing is known

about the input signal beyond the sample window, and this assumption is necessary. If the window time is chosen carefully so that sufficient data are available, an accurate spectral calculation may be made. The narrowest possible resolution of a sampled signal is

fr

1 T

where fr is the resolution frequency and T is the sampling window time. The number of data points within the window has an effect on the quality of the calculated spectrum. The Nyquist sampling theorem states that the highest-frequency component of a complex signal that can be accurately sampled is one-half the sampling rate. Relating this to our example, if 1 s of data were obtained at a 1-kHz sampling rate, the calculated spectrum would have a range of 1 to 500 Hz with a spectral display point every 1 Hz. Therefore, 500 points would be displayed. The resolution of the analog-to-digital conversion will affect the quality of the spectrum calculation. Clearly, the finer the resolution of the digital conversions of the data, the more accurate the calculated spectrum display will be. Roughly, the ratio of the largest increment to the smallest increment that can be resolved by the analog-to-digital conversion is called the dynamic range and is usually expressed as a decibel number. This can be represented as

Rd

20 log 2 N

where N is the number of bits in the digitization. The dynamic range represents the difference in level between the greatest signal that can be measured without overload and the smallest signal that can be displayed together with the larger signal. This is essentially the same as the definition of dynamic range applied to the real-time spectrum analyzer. Remember that in the real-time spectrum analyzer, the overload condition was represented by the generation of inter-modulation products that appeared on the spectrum analyzer display. The lower level of the dynamic range was limited by the noise level of the analyzer. There is a type of noise associated with analog-to-digital conversion called quantizing noise, which was explained in previous chapters, and this is limiting factor for small signals in the FFT spectrum analyzer. Therefore, both types of analyzers are limited on the high end by overload and on the lower end by noise. To gain an insight into the number of samples and the amount of computer data involved an FFT spectrum calculation, determine the number of samples and bits required for above Example. Four seconds of data sampled at a 20-kHz rate would result in 80,000 data words. Since each data word is a 10-bit analog-to-digital conversion, 800,000 bits of computer data is involved in the input data set. Because the FFT spectrum analyzer samples a fixed amount of time of the desired signal to be analyzed, the resultant spectrum determination represents a spectrum of a

spectrum of a periodic function, where the sample is repeated infinitely. The sample represents a window and the data are considered as a periodic function where the data in the window are repeated. Therefore, the spectrum display is made up of lines that are separated by 1/T hertz, where T is the window duration. The shape of the window will affect the spectrum to a degree depending on the type of waveform that is being analyzed. The simplest type of window is represented by an on/off switch. The switch is activated, the signal is digitized, and the switch is closed. As a repeated waveform this sampling can contain sudden discontinuities when the switch is turned on and off. This type of window produces the most distortion. In many cases, however, this simple window does not produce any significant problems. produces unacceptable degradation of the calculated spectrum. The solution to the windowing problem is not to open the window suddenly, but gradually. Instead of using an on/off switch, this is accomplished by using a variable attenuator, which is more like opening a valve and admitting the signal to be digitized. This will reduce the sharp transitions obtained with a simple on/off gating of the input signal. Even how the valve is opened has an effect on the distortion produced by sampling. Various mathematical functions can be used to control the opening of the valve and minimize the distortions of certain waveforms. Figure 1 shows some popular windows and their mathematical equations. The rectangular window or the uniform window is generally used for transients. For since waves and periodic functions without a lot of harmonics, the Hamming window may be used. There are, however, several subtle problems of the Hamming window, and a flattop or Hann window is used when inaccuracies introduced by the Hamming window are unacceptable. spectrum analyzers have several selectable windows. FFT spectrum analysis is restricted primarily to low-frequency analyzers because of the limitations of the speed of analog-to-digital converters. Chapter 7 discussed fast A/D conversion for use in digitizing oscilloscopes, but these converters were limited to about 8 bits. To obtain a reasonable dynamic range, 10 or more bits are desired for the digital conversion. This hampers the speed of the analog-to-digital conversion and rules out the use of some of the more rapid converters such as the flash converter. Typically, FFT analyzers are limited to frequencies below 500 kHz. Figure 2. shows the block diagram of an FFT type of spectrum analyzer. At the input of the spectrum analyzer is a low-pass filter which prevents aliasing. In many cases this is an automatically selected filter with a cutoff frequency determined by the spectrum analyzer parameter settings. An attenuator follows the low-pass filter, which sets the level of the signal fed to the analog-to-digital Converter to prevent overload of the converter. MOSFFT There are some waveforms that the on/off window, sometimes called a uniform window or rectangular window,

Rectangular Window

1 for n

N 1 2 0 elsewhere 2 n ;n N 1 N 1 2

Hann Window

0.5

0.5 cos

0 elsewhere

Hamming Window
n Sample Number
N = Total Samples

0.54

0.46 cos

2 n ;n N 1

N 1 2

0 elsewhere

Rectangular Window

Hann Window Hamming Window

Fig 1: Some popular window functions and their mathematical formulae.

Maximizing the dynamic range of a spectrum analyzer is so important that many instruments automatically set the attenuator to the optimum value. This is done by monitoring the A/D converter output with a computer and adjusting the attenuator to allow the greatest input signal without overload. The analog-to-digital converter immediately follows the low-pass filter. The converted data words are stored in the computer memory for calculation. The sample rate, the window time, and the starting time are determined by the setting of the front panel controls and the microprocessor.

Once all the samples have been digitized, the FFT calculation will begin.
Input Low-Pass Filter Attenuator A/D Converter

Computer

D/A

To vertical input of oscilloscope display To Horizontal input of oscilloscope display

D/A

Fig 2: Block diagram of a fast Fourier Transform Spectrum analyzer

The spectral components are calculated and the values are stored in the computer memory.The nature of the display, the frequency range, the resolution, the input amplitude levels, and so on, are set by the algorithm used by the computer. The sample windows can be modified for improved spectral display. Averaging techniques can be used to increase the signal-to-noise performance of the analyzer. Unlike the real-time spectrum analyzer, all this is accomplished without additional filters, phase-locked circuits, or complicated electrical switching requirements. Since the analyzer contains a computer to perform the FFT algorithm, this computer can be used to perform other mathematical operations on the spectral display. As an example, the results of several spectral displays can be averaged to improve noisy displays. All the averaging routines require additional time to obtain data and to make the FFT calculation and the average calculation. The result, however, is a marked improvement in the spectral determination. The highest levels of performance of an FFT spectrum analyzer are achieved usi8ng these statistical methods.

Chapter-10
1. How virtual instrument reduces the role of vendor and increases the importance of user? Rapid progress in the semiconductor industry and particularly in the field of digital electronics provided the instrument industry with attractive alternative solutions to analog systems. The modern instruments equipped with the necessary digital technology not only provide better accuracy and processing features but also incorporate rapid decision making capabilities. The digital instruments however still self-contained, with signal input/output capabilities and fixed user interface features such as knobs, switches and other features. Inside the box, specialized circuitry, including A/D converter, signal conditioning, microprocessor, memory and an internal bus convert and real world signals, analyze them and present them to the user. The vendor defines all instruments functionality the user cannot change it. Along with these technical drawbacks realized so far, the tougher market scenario have put a thrust the instrumentation system to an open standard technology where the users are no longer tied or interested to be tied to any fixed or any irrelevant functionality of equipment. The new paradigm encourages the main technology trends: computerization, standardization, and communication. The computerization enables the developer to recycle the technology particularly in the PC/Workstation saving on the development cost, thereby making it easier to use and reduced manufacturing cost. The standardization in methodology sets the user free from the grips of vendor expertise so far in certain details of dedicating technology. The methodology now as open standards facilitated easy up-gradation of technology whenever required and more universally acceptable to vendor and customer alike. In present day process control and automation application lose their stand-alone characteristic and distributed over different centers. The test problem changes their dimension form performing a few tests to managing a test process. The communication technology plays a very important role in such an environment and manifested in the forms of Internets and intranets. Furthermore in what might have been the least foreseen development of the past years, designers of the test equipment, especially dataacquisition systems have discovered TCP/IP. Instrumentation and the data its produces are losing their character as private property of particular departments or laboratories recently introduced products turn even individual test instruments into autonomous servers on enterprise-wide Internets. The highly networked test processes thus find commonness and effectively they represent a computer system in front end tuned to a specific application requirement and at the back end the hardware the microprocessors, data acquisition unit, display etc. appears all the same.

Chapter-11
2. What is EMI? Discuss in details different types of EMI sources? Electromagnetic interference (or EMI, also called radio frequency interference or RFI) is a disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source. The disturbance may interrupt, obstruct, artificial or natural, that carries rapidly changing electrical currents, such as an electrical circuit, the Sun or the Northern Lights. EMI can be induced intentionally for radio jamming, as in some forms of electronic warfare, or unintentionally, as a result of spurious and responses, intermodulation products, and the like. It frequently affects measurements of electrical reception of AM radio in urban areas. It can also affect cell phone, FM radio and television, although to a lesser extent. EMI sources Terrestrial Atmospheric (noise from lightning around the world) Nearby and medium distant lightning. Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Man-Made EMI sources EMI sources due to the power network and its equipment: Switching operations Power faults Electric motors Static and rotary connectors Rectifiers Contractors Solar noise (whistles, solar disturbed and quiet radio noise Extraterrestrial Cosmic/galactic radio noise

EMI sources due to commercial equipment: Experimental furnaces Boilers Air conditioning EMI sources due to machines and tools: Workshop machines Rolling mills Welders Rotary saws Compressors Ultrasonic cleaners Fluorescent lamps Neon displaces Medical equipment

EMI sources due to communication systems: Radio broadcast stations on board TV Stations on board Radar EMI sources due to consumer devices: Microwave ovens Refrigerators/freezers Thermostats Mixers Washing machines Vacuum cleaners Hair dryers Shavers Light dimmers Personal computers Citizens-band Mobile telephones Remote control Door opening transmitters

4. What are the different types of noises? Describe them briefly. In any communication system, electronic active and passive devices, as well as in transmitting machine, due to interference of various unwanted signals with the desirable output signal, the reception becomes imperfect. This undesired non-linear phenomenon with sufficient energy super imposed on the actual desired energy is known as noise. Examples of noise can be stated as below: i) The hissing sound in the output of loudspeaker of a radio receiver. ii) In TV, noise may produce snow which becomes super imposed on the picture. Thus, increased noise may tamper the efficient signal transfer from source to the receiver of any communication link. Noise can be categorized depending upon sources type and effects. The Table below lines out the complete classification.
NOISE

External Noise

Internal Noise

Atmospheric Noise

Extraterrestrial Noise

Industrial Noise

Shot Noise

Flicker Noise (Low frequency noise) Partition Noise

Transit Time Noise

Thermal Noise

Solar Noise

Cosmic Noise

Now let us learn briefly about the characteristics of each noise type as classified in Table.

External Noise Noise whose source is external to the receiver. This type of noise is different to treat quantitatively and there is no artificial method to remove it except moving the system to noise region. External noise can be classified into following categories: (a) Atmosphere noise: It is also called static which is produced by lightning discharges in thunder storms and other natural electrical disturbances which occur in atmosphere static originates in the form of amplitude-modulated impulses, and because of its randomness, these process spread over most of the RF spectrum used in broadcasting. Atmospheric noise consist of spurious radio signal with components distributed ever a frequency band. Its way of propagation is same as that of frequencies in radio wave domain such that at any ground point, it is received from all thunderstorms, local, and distant. Field strength is inversely proportional to frequency so, noise will be more prominent for reception of radio than that of television. This concludes that large atmospheric noise is produced in low and medium frequency bands where as very small noise is produced in the VHF and UHF bands. Static from distant sources will vary in intensify according to the variations in propagating conditions. Atmospheric noise becomes less severe at frequencies above about 30 MH Z because of 2 separate factors. (b) Extraterrestrial Noise: There are several types of extraterrestrial noise or space noise depending upon their sources. i) Solar Noise: Solar Noise is the electrical noise being emitted from the Sun. Under quiet conditions, there is constant noise radiation from the Sun simply because it is a large body at a very broad frequency spectrum including communication frequency range. The Sun is a star which constantly changes which undergoes cycles of peak activity from which electrical disturbances evolves, eg :- corona flares and sunspots. Though only a part of the Sun is involved in this noise generation still the order of the magnitude is greater than that received during periods of quiet Sun. The solar cycle disturbances repeat themselves approximately every 11 years. If a line is joined to these 11 year peaks, it is seen a super cycle is in operation, with ever higher maximum after every 100 years or so. Finally these 100 year peaks appears to be increasing in intensity. Since there is a correlation between peaks in solar disturbance and growth rings, it has been possible to trace them to the beginning of the eighteenth century.

ii) Cosmic noise: Distant stars are also considered as Sun and have a high temperature they radiate RF noise similar to Sun. The noise is called thermal noise or black body noise distributed uniformly over the entire sky even galaxy called the milky way is also a source of emitting noise. Cosmic noise may arise from virtual point sources such as quasars and pulsars. Galactic noise is intensive in nature. Two of the strongest sources discovered the earliest are Cassiopeia a and Cygnus A. Cosmic noise is significant in 1.43 GHz. also in the frequency range of 20 to 12 MHz, the space noise becomes the strongest noise component next only to the industrial noise. Below 20 MHz, the space noise does not penetrate much through ionosphere to reach the earth. (c) Industrial Noise This is also called Man-made noise which is produced by sources as electrical motors, automobiles, vehicle, air craft ignition, leakage from high voltage lines, switching equipment and heavy electric machines. Fluorescent lights are other sources of this light and should not be used in sensitive reception scheme. The noise is produced by the arc discharge present in all these operations and under these circumstances it is most obvious that this noise will be the most prominent in industrial and densely populated areas. Industrial noise in the above mentioned areas extends from 1 MHz to 600 MHz. Since, man-made noise is variable it is measured statistically only. Internal Noise Internal noise is generated by the active or passive devices found in the receiver. This noise is randomly distributed and impossible to treat on individual voltage basis. Random noise power is proportional to the band width over which it is measured. Thermal Agitation Noise The noise generated by a resistor or a resistive component is called Thermal Agitation Noise. It is due to rapid and random motion of molecules within the component itself. In thermodynamics, it can be shown. That temperature affects the Kinetic energy of the molecules directly. It increases with increase in temperature and becomes zero at the temperature of absolute zero which is 0K or ( 2730 C ). Temperature is given by the statistical root mean square value of the velocity of the motion of the particles in the body. So, the noise power Pn is given by ;

Pn
or Pn

TB

where T= absolute temperature in Kelvin B=Band width of interest

KTB

K= Boltzmanns constant

Suppose a resistor at normal room temperature, is connected to a dc voltmeter. Since, no external battery is connected, the voltmeter reading is 0. But this case is not valid when an ac meter is connected across the resistor terminals, in spite of an battery connection. This is because, noise voltage, inherent property of the resistor, is due to random motion of the molecules inside. So, the root mean square value is taken and not any instantantaneous value. The rate of random motion might result in mere electrons at one end and vice versa, registering in current flow. Let us draw, the equivalent circuit of a resistor as a noise generator.

R V RL

Vn

Assumptions Load RL is noise less.

RL receives maximum noise power generated by R . Under maximum power transfer,

Pn
or or

V2 RL Vn2

V2 R 4 Pn R 4 RKTB

(Vn / 2)2 R

Vn2 4R

......(1)

Vn

4 RKTB

Thus, the generated noise voltage is independent of the frequency at which it is measured. This is because it is random and evenly distributed over the frequency spectrum.