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Sensors and Transducers
Sensors and Transducers
Simple stand alone electronic circuits can be made to repeatedly
ash a light or play a musical note, but in order for an electronic circuit or
system to perform any useful task or function it needs to be able to communicate with the “real world” whether this is by reading an input signal
from an “ON/OFF” switch or by activating some form of output device to illuminate a single light.
In other words, an Electronic System (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/systems/electronic-system.html) or circuit must be able to “do” something
and Sensors and Transducers are the perfect components for doing this.
The word “Transducer” is the collective term used for both Sensors which can be used to sense a wide range of di erent energy forms such as movement,
electrical signals, radiant energy, thermal or magnetic energy etc, and Actuators which can be used to switch voltages or currents.
There
are
many
di erent
types
of
Sensors
and
Transducers
(http://www.amazon.de/s/? eldkeywords=Sensor%20Technology%20Handbook&tag=electrotuto01-21), both analogue and digital and input and output available to choose from. The type of
input or output transducer being used, really depends upon the type of signal or process being “Sensed” or “Controlled” but we can de ne a sensor and
transducers as devices that converts one physical quantity into another.
Devices which perform an “Input” function are commonly called Sensors because they “sense” a physical change in some characteristic that changes in response
to some excitation, for example heat or force and covert that into an electrical signal. Devices which perform an “Output” function are generally called Actuators
and are used to control some external device, for example movement or sound.
Electrical Transducers are used to convert energy of one kind into energy of another kind, so for example, a microphone (input device) converts sound waves
into electrical signals for the ampli er to amplify (a process), and a loudspeaker (output device) converts these electrical signals back into sound waves and an
example of this type of simple Input/Output (I/O) system is given below.
Simple Input/Output System using Sound Transducers
There are many di erent types of sensors and transducers available in the marketplace, and the choice of which one to use really depends upon the quantity
being measured or controlled, with the more common types given in the table below.
Common Sensors and Transducers
Quantity being
Input Device
Output Device
Measured
(Sensor)
(Actuator)
Light Dependant Resistor (LDR)
Light Level
Photodiode
Photo-transistor
Solar Cell
Thermocouple
Lights & Lamps
LED’s & Displays
Fibre Optics
Temperature
Thermistor
Heater
Thermostat
Fan
Resistive Temperature Detectors
Force/Pressure
Strain Gauge
Lifts & Jacks
Pressure Switch
Electromagnet
Load Cells
Vibration
Potentiometer
Position
Encoders
Re ective/Slotted Opto-switch
LVDT
Speed
Sound
Motor
Solenoid
Panel Meters
Tacho-generator
AC and DC Motors
Re ective/Slotted Opto-coupler
Stepper Motor
Doppler E ect Sensors
Brake
Carbon Microphone
Piezo-electric Crystal
Bell
Buzzer
Loudspeaker
Input type transducers or sensors, produce a voltage or signal output response which is proportional to the change in the quantity that they are measuring (the
stimulus). The type or amount of the output signal depends upon the type of sensor being used. But generally, all types of sensors can be classed as two kinds,
either Passive Sensors or Active Sensors.
Generally, active sensors require an external power supply to operate, called an excitation signal which is used by the sensor to produce the output signal. Active
sensors are self-generating devices because their own properties change in response to an external e ect producing for example, an output voltage of 1 to 10v
DC or an output current such as 4 to 20mA DC.
A good example of an active sensor is a strain gauge which is basically a pressure-sensitive resistive bridge network. It does not generate an electrical signal itself,
but by passing a current through it (excitation signal), its electrical resistance can be measured by detecting variations in the current and/or voltage across it
relating these changes to the amount of strain or force being applied.
Unlike an active sensor, a passive sensor does not need any additional energy source and directly generates an electric signal in response to an external stimulus.
For example, a thermocouple or photo-diode. Passive sensors are direct sensors which change their physical properties, such as resistance, capacitance or
inductance etc. As well as analogue sensors, Digital Sensors produce a discrete output representing a binary number or digit such as a logic level “0” or a logic
level “1”.
Analogue and Digital Sensors
Analogue Sensors
Analogue Sensors produce a continuous output signal or voltage which is generally proportional to the quantity being measured. Physical quantities such as
Temperature, Speed, Pressure, Displacement, Strain etc are all analogue quantities as they tend to be continuous in nature. For example, the temperature of a
liquid can be measured using a thermometer or thermocouple which continuously responds to temperature changes as the liquid is heated up or cooled down.
Thermocouple used to produce an Analogue Signal
Analogue sensors tend to produce output signals that are changing smoothly and continuously over time. These signals tend to be very small in value from a few
mico-volts (uV) to several milli-volts (mV), so some form of ampli cation is required. Then circuits which measure analogue signals usually have a slow response
and/or low accuracy. Also analogue signals can be easily converted into digital type signals for use in micro-controller systems by the use of analogue-to-digital
converters, or ADC’s.
Digital Sensors
As its name implies, Digital Sensors produce a discrete digital output signals or voltages that are a digital representation of the quantity being measured. Digital
sensors produce a Binary (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/binary/bin_1.html) output signal in the form of a logic “1” or a logic “0”, (“ON” or “OFF”). This
means then that a digital signal only produces discrete (non-continuous) values which may be outputted as a single “bit”, (serial transmission) or by combining
the bits to produce a single “byte” output (parallel transmission).
Light Sensor used to produce an Digital Signal
In our simple example above, the speed of the rotating shaft is measured by using a digital LED/Opto-detector sensor. The disc which is xed to a rotating shaft
(for example, from a motor or robot wheels), has a number of transparent slots within its design. As the disc rotates with the speed of the shaft, each slot passes
by the sensor in turn producing an output pulse representing a logic “1” or logic “0” level.
These pulses are sent to a register of counter and nally to an output display to show the speed or revolutions of the shaft. By increasing the number of slots or
“windows” within the disc more output pulses can be produced for each revolution of the shaft. The advantage of this is that a greater resolution and accuracy is
achieved as fractions of a revolution can be detected. Then this type of sensor arrangement could also be used for positional control with one of the discs slots
representing a reference position.
Compared to analogue signals, digital signals or quantities have very high accuracies and can be both measured and “sampled” at a very high clock speed. The
accuracy of the digital signal is proportional to the number of bits used to represent the measured quantity. For example, using a processor of 8 bits, will produce
an accuracy of 0.390% (1 part in 256). While using a processor of 16 bits gives an accuracy of 0.0015%, (1 part in 65,536) or 260 times more accurate. This accuracy
can be maintained as digital quantities are manipulated and processed very rapidly, millions of times faster than analogue signals.
In most cases, sensors and more speci cally analogue sensors generally require an external power supply and some form of additional ampli cation or ltering
of the signal in order to produce a suitable electrical signal which is capable of being measured or used. One very good way of achieving both ampli cation and
ltering within a single circuit is to use Operational Ampli ers (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp_1.html) as seen before.
Signal Conditioning of Sensors
As we saw in the Operational Ampli er (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp_1.html) tutorial, op-amps can be used to provide
ampli cation of signals when connected in either inverting or non-inverting con gurations.
The very small analogue signal voltages produced by a sensor such as a few milli-volts or even pico-volts can be ampli ed many
times over by a simple op-amp circuit to produce a much larger voltage signal of say 5v or 5mA that can then be used as an input
signal to a microprocessor or analogue-to-digital based system.
Therefore, to provide any useful signal a sensors output signal has to be ampli ed with an ampli er that has a voltage gain up to
10,000 and a current gain up to 1,000,000 with the ampli cation of the signal being linear with the output signal being an exact
reproduction of the input, just changed in amplitude.
Then ampli cation is part of signal conditioning. So when using analogue sensors, generally some form of ampli cation (Gain),
impedance matching, isolation between the input and output or perhaps ltering (frequency selection) may be required before the
signal can be used and this is conveniently performed by Operational Ampli ers.
Also, when measuring very small physical changes the output signal of a sensor can become “contaminated” with unwanted signals
or voltages that prevent the actual signal required from being measured correctly. These unwanted signals are called “Noise“. This
Noise or Interference can be either greatly reduced or even eliminated by using signal conditioning or ltering techniques as we
discussed in the Active Filter (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/ lter/ lter_5.html) tutorial.
By using either a Low Pass, or a High Pass or even Band Pass lter the “bandwidth” of the noise can be reduced to leave just the
output signal required. For example, many types of inputs from switches, keyboards or manual controls are not capable of changing
state rapidly and so low-pass lter can be used. When the interference is at a particular frequency, for example mains frequency,
narrow band reject or Notch lters can be used to produce frequency selective lters.
Typical Op-amp Filters
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Were some random noise still remains after ltering it may be necessary to take several samples and then average them to give the nal value so increasing the
signal-to-noise ratio. Either way, both ampli cation and ltering play an important role in interfacing both sensors and transducers to microprocessor and
electronics based systems in “real world” conditions.
In the next tutorial about Sensors, we will look at Positional Sensors (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_2.html) which measure the position and/or
displacement of physical objects meaning the movement from one position to another for a speci c distance or angle.
TI's Signal Conditioners »
Cutting Edge Silicon Process Tech & Advanced Analog Circuit Design
« Inductive Reactance (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/inductor/ac-inductors.html) | Position Sensors (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_2.html) »
Other Good Tutorials in this Category
DC Motors (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_7.html)
Electrical Relay (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_5.html)
Input Interfacing Circuits (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/input-interfacing-circuits.html)
Light Sensors (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_4.html)
Linear Solenoid Actuator (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_6.html)
Output Interfacing Circuits (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/output-interfacing-circuits.html)
Position Sensors (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_2.html)
Sensors and Transducers (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html)
Sound Transducers (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_8.html)
Summary of Transducers (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_9.html)
Temperature Sensors (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_3.html)
Tags:
Control
Systems
(http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/tag/control-systems)
IO
Devices
(http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/tag/io-devices)
Sensors (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/tag/sensors)
35 Responses to “Sensors and Transducers”
Older comments (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html/comment-page-2#comments)
TEREFE , belege
very nice explanation!
Reply (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html?replytocom=11353#respond)
March 18th, 2016 (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html/comment-page-3#comment-11353)
Stephan
2^8 == 256 not 512 (This is in regard to: For example, using a processor of 8 bits, will produce an accuracy of 0.195% (1 part in 512).)
Reply (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html?replytocom=11109#respond)
February 25th, 2016 (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html/comment-page-3#comment-11109)
Wayne Storr (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws)
Oops, thanks Stephan.
Reply (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html?replytocom=11111#respond)
February 25th, 2016 (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html/comment-page-3#comment-11111)
Sir wytclaud
Can someone help me with signal conditioners for the measurents above
Reply (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html?replytocom=10766#respond)
January 20th, 2016 (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html/comment-page-3#comment-10766)
Older comments (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/io/io_1.html/comment-page-2#comments)
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