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CHAPTER-1
CIRCUIT DESIGN AND FABRICATION

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD

1.1 Introduction
A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and
electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or
signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-
conductive substrate It is also referred to as printed wiring board (PWB)
or etched wiring board A PCB populated with electronic components is
a printed circuit assembly (PCA), also known as a printed circuit board
assembly (PCBA) Printed circuit boards are used in virtually all but the
simplest commercially-produced electronic devices
PCBs are inexpensive, and can be highly reliable They require much more
layout effort and higher initial cost than either wire wrap or point-to-point
construction, but are much cheaper and faster for high-volume production; the
production and soldering of PCBs can be done by totally automated equipment
Much of the electronics industry's PCB design, assembly, and quality control
needs are set by standards that are published by the IPCorganization
Printed circuit boards are electronic circuits created by mounting electronic
components on a nonconductive board, and creating conductive connections
between them The creation of circuit patterns is accomplished using both
additive and subtractive methods
The conductive circuit is generally copper, although aluminium, nickel, chrome,
and other metals are sometimes used There are three basic varieties of
printed circuit boards: single-sided, double-sided, and multi-layered The
spatial and density requirement, and the circuitry complexity determine the
type of board produced Printed circuit boards are employed in the
manufacturing of business machines and computers, as well as communication,
control, and home entertainment equipment


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1.2 History
evelopment of the methods used in modern printed circuit boards started
early in the 20th century In 1903, a German inventor, Albert Hanson,
described flat foil conductors laminated to an insulating board, in multiple
layers Thomas Edison experimented with chemical methods of plating
conductors on linen paper in 1904 Arthur Berry in 1913 patented a print-and-
etch method in Britain, and in the United States Max Schoop obtained a
patent
[1]
to flame-spray metal onto a board through a patterned mask Charles
urcase in 1927 patented a method of electroplating circuit patterns
The inventor of the printed circuit was the Austrian engineer Paul Eisler who,
while working in England, made one circa 1936 as part of a radio set Before
printed circuits, point-to-point construction was used
For prototypes, or small production runs, wire wrap or turret board can be
more efficient Predating the printed circuit invention, and similar in spirit,
was John Sargrove's 1936-1947 Electronic Circuit Making Equipment (ECME)
which sprayed metal onto a Bakelite plastic board The ECME could produce 3
radios per minute
Originally, every electronic component had wire leads, and the PCB had holes
drilled for each wire of each component The components' leads were then
passed through the holes and soldered to the PCB trace This method of
assembly is called through-hole construction In 1949, Moe Abramson and
Stanislaus F anko of the United States Army Signal Corps developed the
Auto-Sembly process in which component leads were inserted into a copper foil
interconnection pattern and dip soldered
With the development of board lamination and etching techniques, this concept
evolved into the standard printed circuit board fabrication process in use today
Soldering could be done automatically by passing the board over a ripple, or
wave, of molten solder in a wave-soldering machine However, the wires and
holes are wasteful since drilling holes is expensive and the protruding wires are
merely cut off
In recent years, the use of surface mount parts has gained popularity as the
demand for smaller electronics packaging and greater functionality has grown


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1.3 MANUFACTURING
Materials
Conducting layers are typically made of thin copper foil Insulating
layers dielectric are typically laminated together with epoxy resin prepreg The
board is typically coated with a solder mask that is green in color Other colors
that are normally available are blue, black, white and red There are quite a few
different dielectrics that can be chosen to provide different insulating values
depending on the requirements of the circuit Some of these dielectrics
arepolytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), FR-4, FR-1, CEM-1 or CEM-3 Well known
prepreg materials used in the PCB industry are FR-2 (Phenolic cotton paper),
FR-3 (Cotton paper and epoxy), FR-4 (Woven glass and epoxy), FR-5 (Woven
glass and epoxy), FR-6 (Matte glass and polyester), G-10 (Woven glass and
epoxy), CEM-1 (Cotton paper and epoxy), CEM-2 (Cotton paper and epoxy),
CEM-3 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-4 (Woven glass and epoxy), CEM-5
(Woven glass and polyester)
Thermal expansion is an important consideration especially with BGA and
naked die technologies, and glass fiber offers the best dimensional stability
FR-4 is by far the most common material used today The board with copper on
it is called "copper-clad laminate"
Copper foil thickness can be specified in ounces per square foot or micrometres
One ounce per square foot is 1344 mils or 34 micrometres

Patterning (etching)

The vast majority of printed circuit boards are made by bonding a layer of
copper over the entire substrate, sometimes on both sides, (creating a "blank
PCB") then removing unwanted copper after applying a temporary mask (eg
by etching), leaving only the desired copper traces A few PCBs are made
by adding traces to the bare substrate (or a substrate with a very thin layer of
copper) usually by a complex process of multiple electroplating steps The PCB
manufacturing method primarily depends on whether it is for production volume
or sample/prototype quantities


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Commercial (production quantities, usually PTH)
silk screen printing-the main commercial method
Photographic methods-used when fine linewidths are required

Hobbyist/prototype (small quantities, usually not PTH)
aser-printed resist: aser-print onto paper (or wax paper), heat-transfer
with an iron or modified laminator onto bare laminate, then etch
Print onto transparent film and use as photomask along with photo-
sensitized boards (ie pre-sensitized boards), Then etch (Alternatively, use
a film photoplotter)
aser resist ablation: Spray black paint onto copper clad laminate, place into
CNC laser plotter The laser raster-scans the PCB and ablates (vaporizes) the
paint where no resist is wanted Etch (Note: laser copper ablation is rarely
used and is considered experimental)
Use a CNC-mill with a spade-shaped (ie 45-degree) cutter or miniature
end-mill to route away the undesired copper, leaving only the traces
There are three common "subtractive" methods (methods that remove copper)
used for the production of printed circuit boards:
1Silk screen printing uses etch-resistant inks to protect the copper foil
Subsequent etching removes the unwanted copper Alternatively, the ink
may be conductive, printed on a blank (non-conductive) board The latter
technique is also used in the manufacture of hybrid circuits
2Photoengraving uses a photomask and developer to selectively remove
a photoresist coating The remaining photoresist protects the copper foil
Subsequent etching removes the unwanted copper The photomask is
usually prepared with a photoplotter from data produced by a technician
using CAM, or computer-aided manufacturing software aser-printed
transparencies are typically employed for 5hototools; however, direct
laser imaging techniques are being employed to replace phototools for
high-resolution requirements
3PCB milling uses a two or three-axis mechanical milling system to mill
away the copper foil from the substrate A PCB milling machine (referred
to as a 'PCB Prototyper') operates in a similar way to a plotter, receiving
commands from the host software that control the position of the milling
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head in the x, y, and (if relevant) z axis ata to drive the Prototyper is
extracted from files generated in PCB design software and stored
in HPGor Gerber file format

"Additive" processes also exist The most common is the "semi-additive"
process In this version, the unpatterned board has a thin layer of copper
already on it A reverse mask is then applied (Unlike a subtractive process
mask, this mask exposes those parts of the substrate that will eventually
become the traces) Additional copper is then plated onto the board in the
unmasked areas; copper may be plated to any desired weight

Tin-lead or other surface platings are then applied The mask is stripped away
and a brief etching step removes the now-exposed original copper laminate
from the board, isolating the individual traces Some boards with plated through
holes but still single sided were made with a process like this General
Electric made consumer radio sets in the late 1960s using boards like these
The additive process is commonly used for multi-layer boards as it facilitates
the plating-through of the holes (to produce conductive vias) in the circuit
board

The dimensions of the copper conductors of the printed circuit board is related
to the amount of current the conductor must carry Each trace consists of a flat,
narrow part of the copper foil that remains after etching Signal traces are
usually narrower than power or ground traces because their current carrying
requirements are usually much less

In a multi-layer board one entire layer may be mostly solid copper to act as
a ground plane for shielding and power return For printed circuit boards that
contain microwave circuits, transmission lines can be laid out in the form
of stripline and microstripwith carefully controlled dimensions to assure a
consistent impedance
In radio-frequency circuits the inductance and capacitance of the printed circuit
board conductors can be used as a delibrate part of the circuit design, obviating
the need for additional discrete components

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1.4 Chemical etching

Chemical etching is done with ferric chloride, ammonium persulfate, or
sometimes hydrochloric acid For PTH (plated-through holes), additional steps
of electroless deposition are done after the holes are drilled, then copper is
electroplated to build up the thickness, the boards are screened, and plated
with tin/lead The tin/lead becomes the resist leaving the bare copper to be
etched away
The simplest method, used for small scale production and often by hobbyists, is
immersion etching, in which the board is submerged in etching solution such as
ferric chloride Compared with methods used for mass production, the etching
time is long Heat and agitation can be applied to the bath to speed the etching
rate In bubble etching, air is passed through the etchant bath to agitate the
solution and speed up etching
Splash etching uses a motor-driven paddle to splash boards with etchant; the
process has become commercially obsolete since it is not as fast as spray
etching In spray etching, the etchant solution is distributed over the boards by
nozzles, and recirculated by pumps Adjustment of the nozzle pattern, flow rate,
temperature, and etchant composition gives predictable control of etching rates
and high production rates

As more copper is consumed from the boards, the etchant becomes saturated
and less effective; different etchants have different capacities for copper, with
some as high as 150 grams of copper per litre of solution In commercial use,
etchants can be regenrated to restore their activity, and the dissolved copper
recovered and sold Small-scale etching requires attention to disposal of used
etchant, which is corrosive and toxic due to its metal content

The etchant removes copper on all surfaces exposed by the resist "Undercut"
occurs when etchant attacks the thin edge of copper under the resist; this can
reduce conductor widths and cause open-circuits Careful control of etch time is
required to prevent undercut Where metallic plating is used as a resist, it can
"overhang" which can cause short-circuits between adjacent traces when closely
spaced Overhang can be removed by wire-brushing the board after etching


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amination
Some PCBs have trace layers inside the PCB and are called 2ulti-layer PCBs
These are formed by bonding together separately etched thin boards

1.5 Drilling
Holes through a PCB are typically drilled with small-diameter drill bits made of
solid coated tungsten carbide Coated tungsten carbide is recommended since
many board materials are very abrasive and drilling must be high RPM and high
feed to be cost effective rill bits must also remain sharp to not mar or tear
the traces rilling with high-speed-steel is simply not feasible since the drill
bits will dull quickly and thus tear the copper and ruin the boards The drilling is
performed by automated drilling machines with placement controlled by a drill
ta5e or drill file These computer-generated files are also called nu2erically
controlled drill (NC) files or "Excellon files" The drill file describes the location
and size of each drilled hole These holes are often filled with annular rings
(hollow rivets) to create vias Vias allow the electrical and thermal connection of
conductors on opposite sides of the PCB
When very small vias are required, drilling with mechanical bits is costly
because of high rates of wear and breakage In this case, the vias may be
evaporated by lasers
It is also possible with controlled-de5th drilling, laser drilling, or by pre-drilling
the individual sheets of the PCB before lamination, to produce holes that
connect only some of the copper layers, rather than passing through the entire
board These holes are called blind vias when they connect an internal copper
layer to an outer layer, or buried vias when they connect two or more internal
copper layers and no outer layers
The walls of the holes, for boards with 2 or more layers, are made conductive
then plated with copper to form 5lated-through holes that electrically connect
the conducting layers of the PCB For multilayer boards, those with 4 layers or
more, drilling typically produces a s2ear of the high temperature decomposition
products of bonding agent in the laminate system Before the holes can be
plated through, this s2ear must be removed by a chemical de-s2ear process,
or by 5las2a-etch Removing (etching back) the smear also reveals the interior
conductors as well



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1.6 Exposed conductor plating and coating

PCBs are plated with solder, tin, or gold over nickel as a resist for etching away
the unneeded underlying copper
After PCBs are etched and then rinsed with water, the soldermask is applied,
and then any exposed copper is coated with solder, nickel/gold, or some other
anti-corrosion coating
Matte solder is usually fused to provide a better bonding surface or stripped to
bare copper Treatments, such as benzimidazolethiol, prevent surface oxidation
of bare copper The places to which components will be mounted are typically
plated, because untreated bare copper oxidizes quickly, and therefore is not
readily solderable Traditionally, any exposed copper was coated with solder by
hot air solder levelling (HAS) The HAS finish prevents oxidation from the
underlying copper, thereby guaranteeing a solderable surface This solder was
a tin-lead alloy, however new solder compounds are now used to achieve
compliance with the RoHS directive in the EU and US, which restricts the use of
lead One of these lead-free compounds is SN100C, made up of 993% tin,
07% copper, 005% nickel, and a nominal of 60ppm germanium
It is important to use solder compatible with both the PCB and the parts used

1.7 Solder resist
Areas that should not be soldered may be covered with a polymer solder
resist (solder 2ask) coating The solder resist prevents solder from bridging
between conductors and creating short circuits Solder resist also provides some
protection from the environment Solder resist is typically 20-30 micrometres
thick

1.8 Screen printing
ine art and text may be printed onto the outer surfaces of a PCB by screen
printing When space permits, the screen print text can indicate component
designators, switch setting requirements, test points, and other features helpful
in assembling, testing, and servicing the circuit board
Screen print is also known as the silk screen, or, in one sided PCBs, the red
5rint


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1.9 Printed circuit assembly
After the printed circuit board (PCB) is completed, electronic components must
be attached to form a functional 5rinted circuit asse2bly,or PCA (sometimes
called a "printed circuit board assembly" PCBA) In through-hole construction,
component leads are inserted in holes In surface-2ountconstruction, the
components are placed on 5ads or lands on the outer surfaces of the PCB In
both kinds of construction, component leads are electrically and mechanically
fixed to the board with a molten metal solder
There are a variety of soldering techniques used to attach components to a
PCB High volume production is usually done with machine placement and bulk
wave soldering or reflow ovens, but skilled technicians are able to solder very
tiny parts (for instance 0201 packages which are 002 in by 001 in) by hand
under a microscope, using tweezers and a fine tip soldering iron for small
volume prototypes Some parts may be extremely difficult to solder by hand,
such as BGA packages
Often, through-hole and surface-mount construction must be combined in a
single assembly because some required components are available only in
surface-mount packages, while others are available only in through-hole
packages Another reason to use both methods is that through-hole mounting
can provide needed strength for components likely to endure physical stress,
while components that are expected to go untouched will take up less space
using surface-mount techniques
After the board has been populated it may be tested in a variety of ways:
While the power is off, visual inspection, automated optical
inspection JEEC guidelines for PCB component placement, soldering, and
inspection are commonly used to maintain quality control in this stage of
PCB manufacturing
While the power is off, analog signature analysis, power-off testing
While the power is on, in-circuit test, where physical measurements (ie
voltage, frequency) can be done
While the power is on, functional test, just checking if the PCB does what it
had been designed for

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To facilitate these tests, PCBs may be designed with extra pads to make
temporary connections Sometimes these pads must be isolated with resistors
The in-circuit test may also exercise boundary scan test features of some
components In-circuit test systems may also be used to program nonvolatile
memory components on the board


Fig1(a)PCB with test connection pads

In boundary scan testing, test circuits integrated into various ICs on the board
form temporary connections between the PCB traces to test that the ICs are
mounted correctly Boundary scan testing requires that all the ICs to be tested
use a standard test configuration procedure, the most common one being the
Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) standard
The JTAG test architecture provides a means to test interconnects between
integrated circuits on a board without using physical test probes JTAG tool
vendors provide various types of stimulus and sophisticated algorithms, not
only to detect the failing nets, but also to isolate the faults to specific nets,
devices, and pins
When boards fail the test, technicians may desolder and replace failed
components, a task known as rework






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1) Software layout of the circuit. 2) aser printed PCB pattern.



3) PCB surface after rubbing with 4) PCB after final soak, ready
abrasive pad. for etching.


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5) PCB after etching and drilling.

6) Components mounted

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CHAPTER-2
INEAR VARIABE DIFFERENTIA TRANSFORMER

2.1 INTRODUCTION
The VT, inear Variable ifferential Transformer is a well established
transducer design which has been used throughout many decades for the
accurate measurement of displacement and within closed loops for the control
of positioning It is a common type of electromechanical transducer that can
convert the rectilinear motion of an object to which it is coupled mechanically
into a corresponding electrical signal VT linear position sensors are readily
available that can measure movements as small as a few millionths of an inch
up to several inches, but are also capable of measuring positions up to 20
inches (05 m)
VTs have historically been a popular sensor for military and manufacturing
applications (Nyce2004), partially due to their extremely high resolution but also
due to their simplicity and robustness They also have a
high linearity, repeatability and accuracy

2.2 History

The VT's original idea was proposed in a patent by George B Hoadly titled
"Telemetric System, intended as a system for the electrical transmission of
intelligence at a distance (Hoadly1936) The original design had some
structural and operational differences to its successors, but the fundamental
technology of the sensor has not changed significantly since its invention In
1946, Herman Schaevitz published "The inear Variable ifferential
Transformer, a paper describing an VT design which is nearly identical to the
VTs sold commercially to this day The primary differences between more
modern versions of the sensor and their predecessors lay mainly in the areas of
miniaturization and materials, allowing smaller and more accurate sensors to be
made (Nyce2004) The use of the VT was historically dominated by the
military until lowering costs lead to widespread use in a variety of industries
(Nyce2004) VTs require few components and can be hand-constructed
(Powell2009), although it is very difficult to match the quality of commercial
units

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2.3 Principle
The differential voltage of two secondary windings varies linearly with
displacement of the core


2.4 Construction

An VT is composed of seven components, not including the conditioning
circuitry:
Primary coil
Secondary coil 1
Secondary coil 2
Ferromagnetic core
Shaft
Shield
Handle


Fig2(a) Cutaway view of the linear variable differential transformer

The transformer's internal structure consists of a primary winding centred
between a pair of identically wound secondary windings, symmetrically spaced
about the primary The coils are wound on a one piece hollow form of thermally
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stable glass reinforced polymer, encapsulated against moisture, wrapped in a
high permeability magnetic shield, and then secured in a cylindrical stainless
steel housing This coil assembly is usually the stationary element of the
position sensor

The moving element of an VT is a separate tubular armature of magnetically
permeable material called the core, which is free to move
axially within the coil's hollow bore, and mechanically coupled to the object
whose position is being measured This bore is typically large
enough to provide substantial radial clearance between the core and bore, with
no physical contact between it and the coil
In operation, the VT's primary winding is energized by alternating current of
appropriate amplitude and frequency, known as the primary
excitation The VT's electrical output signal is the differential AC voltage
between the two secondary windings, which varies with the axial position of the
core within the VT coil Usually this AC output voltage is converted by
suitable electronic circuitry to high level C voltage or current that is more
convenient to use




Fig2(b) Schematic reprentation

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The ferromagnetic core is the moving component whose position within the
shaft is sensed Around the shaft are wound three inductors, the primary
winding in the middle and the secondary windings (wound in opposite direction)
on either side of the primary Each of the secondaries should have the same
number of turns and be of the same length, otherwise the null position and
linearity will be affected A cylindrical shield protects the windings from damage
and also serves to contain the magnetic field used for sensing The physical
component which will be measured using the VT is mechanically coupled to
the ferromagnetic core using a threaded (and non-ferromagnetic) handle For
some applications, a guide system and even a spring-return (which is known as
a "gagehead configuration) may be included in the assembly

2.5 Signal Conditioning

The conditioning circuit for an VT is relatively complicated and plays an
important part in the linearity and precision of the device Firstly, an oscillator
excites the primary winding which is coupled with the secondary windings each
to a degree dependent upon the position of the ferromagnetic core If the core
is in the centre position, then the secondaries will be equally coupled to the
primary If the core is displaced from its centre position, then one of the
secondaries will be more strongly coupled and will echo the excitation signal to
a greater degree
One of the secondary windings, being wound in opposite direction to the other
two inductors, will output the excitation signal in opposite phase This is used in
order to obtain a differential voltage indicating the direction of the
displacement: the outputs of the secondary windings are rectified and summed
to produce a voltage which varies linearly between the +/- the maximum
displacement with the centre position being at zero volts

2.6 Working
An alternating current is driven through the primary, causing a voltage to be
induced in each secondary proportional to its mutual inductance with the
primary Thefrequency is usually in the range 1 to 10 kHz
As the core moves, these mutual inductances change, causing the voltages
induced in the secondaries to change The coils are connected in reverse series,
so that the output voltage is the difference (hence "differential") between the
two secondary voltages When the core is in its central position, equidistant
between the two secondaries, equal but opposite voltages are induced in these
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two coils, so the output voltage is theoretically zero In practice minor
variations in the way in which the primary is coupled to each secondary means
that a small voltage is output when the core is central

Fig2(c)The output characteristics of an VT vary with different positions of the core Full
range output is a large signal, typically a volt or more, and often requires no amplification

When the core is displaced in one direction, the voltage in one coil increases as
the other decreases, causing the output voltage to increase from zero to a
maximum This voltage is in phase with the primary voltage When the core
moves in the other direction, the output voltage also increases from zero to a
maximum, but its phase is opposite to that of the primary The magnitude of
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the output voltage is proportional to the distance moved by the core (up to its
limit of travel), which is why the device is described as "linear" The phase of
the voltage indicates the direction of the displacement
Because the sliding core does not touch the inside of the tube, it can move
without friction, making the VT a highly reliable device The absence of any
sliding or rotating contacts allows the VT to be completely sealed against the
environment
VTs are commonly used for position feedback in servomechanisms, and for
automated measurement in machine tools and many other industrial and
scientific applications

2.7 VDT Support Electronics

Although an VT is an electrical transformer, it requires AC power of an
amplitude and frequency quite different from ordinary power lines to operate
properly (typically 3 V rms at 3 kHz) Supplying this excitation power for an
VT is one of several functions of VT support electronics, which is also
sometimes known as VT signal conditioning equipment
Other functions include converting the VT's lowlevel AC voltage output into
high level C signals that are more convenient to use, decoding directional
information from the 180 degree output phase shift as an VT's core moves
through the null point, and providing an electrically adjustable output zero level
A variety of VT signal conditioning electronics is available, including chip-level
and board-level products for OEM applications as well as modules and complete
laboratory instruments for users The support electronics can also be self-
contained, as in the C-VT
These easy-to-use position transducers offer practically all of the VT's
benefits with the simplicity of C-in, C-out operation Of course, VTs with
integral electronics may not be suitable for some applications, or might not be
packaged appropriately for some installation environments





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2.8 Types of VDT

1) Open Wiring VDT
Most VT's are wired as shown in the schematic above This wiring
arrangement is known as open wiring Since the number of coil windings is
uniformly distributed along the transformer, the voltage output is proportional
to the iron core displacement when the core slides through the transformer
This equation is,

where is displacement of the iron core with respect to the transformer,
and is the sensitivity of the transformer (slope of the displacement-voltage
curve)


2) Ratiometric Wiring VDT
Another commonly used VT wiring is known as ratiometric wiring, as
shown schematically below


Ratiometric Wiring
The displacement for ratiometric VT's is given by the relation,




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2.9 Uses of VDT
VTs have certain significant features and benefits, most of which derive from
its fundamental physical principles of operation or from the materials and
techniques used in its construction

Friction-Free Operation
One of the most important features of an VT is its friction-free operation In
normal use, there is no mechanical contact between the VT's core and coil
assembly, so there is no rubbing, dragging or other source of friction This
feature is particularly useful in materials testing, vibration displacement
measurements, and high resolution dimensional gaging systems

Infinite Resolution
Since an VT operates on electromagnetic coupling principles in a friction-free
structure, it can measure infinitesimally small changes in core position This
infinite resolution capability is limited only by the noise in an VT signal
conditioner and the output display's resolution These same factors also give an
VT its outstanding repeatability

Unlimited Mechanical ife
Because there is normally no contact between the VT's core and coil
structure, no parts can rub together or wear out This means that an VT
features unlimited mechanical life This factor is especially important in high
reliability applications such as aircraft, satellites and space vehicles, and nuclear
installations It is also highly desirable in many industrial process control and
factory automation systems

Overtravel Damage Resistant
The internal bore of most VTs is open at both ends In the event of
unanticipated overtravel, the core is able to pass completely through thesensor
coil assembly without causing damage This invulnerability to position input
overload makes an VT the ideal sensor for applications like extensometers
that are attached to tensile test samples in destructive materials testing
apparatus
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Single Axis Sensitivity
An VT responds to motion of the core along the coil's axis, but is generally
insensitive to cross-axis motion of the core or to its radial position Thus, an
VT can usually function without adverse effect in applications involving
misaligned or floating moving members, and in cases where the core doesn't
travel in a precisely straight line

Separable Coil And Core
Because the only interaction between an VT's core and coil is magnetic
coupling, the coil assembly can be isolated from the core by inserting a non-
magnetic tube between the core and the bore By doing so, a pressurized fluid
can be contained within the tube, in which the core is free to move, while the
coil assembly is unpressurized This feature is often utilized in VTs used for
spool position feedback in hydraulic proportional and/or servo valves

Environmentally Robust
The materials and construction techniques used in assembling an VT result in
a rugged, durable sensor that is robust to a variety of environmental conditions
Bonding of the windings is followed by epoxy encapsulation into the case,
resulting in superior moisture and humidity resistance, as well as the capability
to take substantial shock loads and high vibration levels in all axes And the
internal high-permeability magnetic shield minimizes the effects of external AC

Null Point Repeatibility
The location of an VT's intrinsic null point is extremely stable and repeatable,
even over its very wide operating temperature range This makes an VT
perform well as a null position sensor in closed-loop control systems and high
performance servo balance instruments

Fast Dynamic Response
The absence of friction during ordinary operation permits an VT to respond
very fast to changes in core position The dynamic response of an VT sensor
itself is limited only by the inertial effects of the core's slight mass More often,
the response of an VT sensing system is determined by characteristics of the
signal conditioner

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Absolute Output
An VT is an absolute output device, as opposed to an incremental output
device This means that in the event of loss of power, the position data being
sent from the VT will not be lost When the measuring system is restarted,
the VT's output value will be the same as it was before the power failure
occurred

2.10 Applications
Although the VT is a displacement sensor, many other physical quantities can
be sensed by converting displacement to the desired quantity via thoughtful
arrangements Several examples will be given
- Displacement

- extensometers, temperature transducers, butterfly valve control, servo valve
displacement sensing

- Deflection of Beams, Strings, or Rings



- load cells, force transducers, pressure transducers

Diaphragm Pressure Gage


O Velocity and Acceleration

- automotive suspension control


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-









-


- dimension gages, thickness and profile measurements, product sorting by size


Profile Gage


- Fluid evel

- fluid level and fluid flow measurement, position sensing in hydraulic cylinders

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Fluid evel Gage

Common Specifications
Common specifications for commercially available translational VT's are listed
below:

n5ut: Power input is a 3 to 15 V (rms) sine wave with a frequency
between 60 to 20,000 Hz (the two most common signals are
3 V, 25 kHz and 63 V, 60 Hz)

Stroke: Full-range stroke ranges from 125 m to 75 mm (0005 to
3 in)

Sensitivity: Sensitivity usually ranges from 06 to 30 mV per 25 m
(0001 in) under normal excitation of 3 to 6 V Generally, the
higher the frequency the higher the sensitivity

Nonlinearity: Inherent nonlinearity of standard units is on the order of 05%
of full scale

Pros and Cons
- Pros:
- Relative low cost due to its popularity
- Solid and robust, capable of working in a wide variety of environments

- No friction resistance, since the iron core does not contact the transformer
coils, resulting in an infinite (very long) service life
- High signal to noise ratio and low output impedance
- Negligible hysteresis

- Infinitesimal resolution (theoretically) In reality, displacement resolution is
limited by the resolution of the amplifiers and voltage meters used to
process the output signal

- Short response time, only limited by the inertia of the iron core and the
rise time of the amplifiers

- No permanent damage to the VT if measurements exceed the designed
range

- Cons:

- The core must contact directly or indirectly with the measured surface
which is not always possible or desirable However, a non-contact
thickness gage can be achieved by including a pneumatic servo to maintain
the air gap between the nozzle and the work piece
- ynamic measurements are limited to no more than 1/10 of the VT
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resonant frequency In most cases, this results in a 2 kHz frequency cap












OSCIATORS

Introduction
Oscillators are used in many electronic circuits and systems providing the
central "clock" signal that controls the sequential operation of the entire
system Oscillators convert a C input (the supply voltage) into an AC output
(the waveform), which can have a wide range of different wave shapes and
frequencies that can be either complicated in nature or simple sine waves
depending upon the application Oscillators are also used in many pieces of test
equipment producing either sinusoidal sine waves, square, sawtooth or
triangular shaped waveforms or just a train of pulses of a variable or constant
width
An Oscillator is basically an Amplifier with "Positive Feedback", or
regenerative feedback (in-phase) and one of the many problems in electronic
circuit design is stopping amplifiers from oscillating while trying to get
oscillators to oscillate Oscillators work because they overcome the losses of
their feedback resonator circuit either in the form of a ca5acitor, inductor or
both in the same circuit by applying C energy at the required frequency into
this resonator circuit In other words, an oscillator is a an amplifier which uses
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positive feedback that generates an output frequency without the use of an
input signal It is self sustaining
Then an oscillator has a small signal feedback amplifier with an open-loop gain
equal too or slightly greater than one for oscillations to start but to continue
oscillations the average loop gain must return to unity In addition to these
reactive components, an amplifying device such as an Operational
Amplifier or Bipolar Transistor is required Unlike an amplifier there is no
external AC input required to cause the Oscillator to work as the C supply
energy is converted by the oscillator into AC energy at the required frequency
A low-frequency oscillator (FO) is an electronic oscillator that generates
an AC waveform at a frequency below =20 Hz This term is typically used in the
field of audio synthesizers, to distinguish it from an audio frequency oscillator

There are two main types of electronic oscillator: the harmonic oscillator and
the relaxation oscillator


Basic Oscillator Feedback Circuit

Where: is a feedback fraction

Without Feedback
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With Feedback





Oscillators are circuits that generate a continuous voltage output waveform at
a required frequency with the values of the inductors, capacitors or resistors
forming a frequency selective C resonant tank circuit and feedback network
This feedback network is an attenuation network which has a gain of less than
one ( <1 ) and starts oscillations when A >1 which returns to unity ( A =1 )
once oscillations commence
The C oscillators frequency is controlled using a tuned or resonant
inductive/capacitive (C) circuit with the resulting output frequency being
known as the Oscillation Frequency By making the oscillators feedback a
reactive network the phase angle of the feedback will vary as a function of
frequency and this is called Phase-shift
There are basically types of Oscillators
O 1 Sinusoidal Oscillators - these are known as Harmonic Oscillators and are
generally a "C Tuned-feedback" or "RC tuned-feedback" type Oscillator that
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generates a purely sinusoidal waveform which is of constant amplitude and
frequency
O
O 2 Non-Sinusoidal Oscillators - these are known as Relaxation
Oscillators and generate complex non-sinusoidal waveforms that changes very
quickly from one condition of stability to another such as "Square-wave",
"Triangular-wave" or "Sawtoothed-wave" type waveforms
Resonance
When a constant voltage but of varying frequency is applied to a circuit
consisting of an inductor, capacitor and resistor the reactance of both the
Capacitor/Resistor and Inductor/Resistor circuits is to change both the
amplitude and the phase of the output signal as compared to the input signal
due to the reactance of the components used At high frequencies the reactance
of a capacitor is very low acting as a short circuit while the reactance of the
inductor is high acting as an open circuit At low frequencies the reverse is true,
the reactance of the capacitor acts as an open circuit and the reactance of the
inductor acts as a short circuit Between these two extremes the combination of
the inductor and capacitor produces a "Tuned" or "Resonant" circuit that has
a Resonant Frequency, ( Jr ) in which the capacitive and inductive
reactance's are equal and cancel out each other, leaving only the resistance of
the circuit to oppose the flow of current This means that there is no phase shift
as the current is in phase with the voltage Consider the circuit below
Basic C Oscillator Tank Circuit


The circuit consists of an inductive coil, and a capacitor, C The capacitor
stores energy in the form of an electrostatic field and which produces a
potential (static voltage) across its plates, while the inductive coil stores its
energy in the form of an electromagnetic field The capacitor is charged up to
the C supply voltage, V by putting the switch in position A When the capacitor
is fully charged the switch changes to position B The charged capacitor is now
connected in parallel across the inductive coil so the capacitor begins to
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discharge itself through the coil The voltage across C starts falling as the
current through the coil begins to rise This rising current sets up an
electromagnetic field around the coil which resists this flow of current When
the capacitor, C is completely discharged the energy that was originally stored
in the capacitor, C as an electrostatic field is now stored in the inductive
coil, as an electromagnetic field around the coils windings
As there is now no external voltage in the circuit to maintain the current within
the coil, it starts to fall as the electromagnetic field begins to collapse A back
emf is induced in the coil (e = -di/dt) keeping the current flowing in the
original direction This current now charges up the capacitor, C with the
opposite polarity to its original charge C continues to charge up until the
current reduces to zero and the electromagnetic field of the coil has collapsed
completely The energy originally introduced into the circuit through the switch,
has been returned to the capacitor which again has an electrostatic voltage
potential across it, although it is now of the opposite polarity The capacitor now
starts to discharge again back through the coil and the whole process is
repeated The polarity of the voltage changes as the energy is passed back and
forth between the capacitor and inductor producing an AC type sinusoidal
voltage and current waveform This then forms the basis of an C oscillators
tank circuit and theoretically this cycling back and forth will continue
indefinitely However, every time energy is transferred from C to or
from to C losses occur which decay the oscillations
This oscillatory action of passing energy back and forth between the
capacitor, C to the inductor, would continue indefinitely if it was not for
energy losses within the circuit Electrical energy is lost in the C or real
resistance of the inductors coil, in the dielectric of the capacitor, and in
radiation from the circuit so the oscillation steadily decreases until they die
away completely and the process stops Then in a practical C circuit the
amplitude of the oscillatory voltage decreases at each half cycle of oscillation
and will eventually die away to zero The oscillations are then said to be
"damped" with the amount of damping being determined by the quality or Q-
factor of the circuit
Damped Oscillations
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The frequency of the oscillatory voltage depends upon the value of the
inductance and capacitance in theC tank circuit We now know that
for resonance to occur in the tank circuit, there must be a frequency point were
the value of X
C
, the capacitive reactance is the same as the value of X

, the
inductive reactance (X

= X
C
) and which will therefore cancel out each other out
leaving only the C resistance in the circuit to oppose the flow of current If we
now place the curve for inductive reactance on top of the curve for capacitive
reactance so that both curves are on the same axes, the point of intersection
will give us the resonance frequency point, ( Jr or or ) as shown below
Resonance Frequency
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where: J
r
is in Hertz, is in Henries and C is in Farads
Then the frequency at which this will happen is given as:

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Then by simplifying the above equation we get the final equation for Resonant
Frequency, Jr in a tunedC circuit as:
Resonant Frequency of a C Oscillator

O Where:
O is the Inductance in Henries
O C is the Capacitance in Farads
O Jr is the Output Frequency in Hertz
This equation shows that if either or C are decreased, the frequency
increases This output frequency is commonly given the abbreviation of ( Jr ) to
identify it as the "resonant frequency"
To keep the oscillations going in an C tank circuit, we have to replace all the
energy lost in each oscillation and also maintain the amplitude of these
oscillations at a constant level The amount of energy replaced must therefore
be equal to the energy lost during each cycle If the energy replaced is too large
the amplitude would increase until clipping of the supply rails occurs
Alternatively, if the amount of energy replaced is too small the amplitude would
eventually decrease to zero over time and the oscillations would stop
The simplest way of replacing this lost energy is to take part of the output from
the C tank circuit, amplify it and then feed it back into the C circuit again
This process can be achieved using a voltage amplifier using an op-amp, FET or
bipolar transistor as its active device However, if the loop gain of the feedback
amplifier is too small, the desired oscillation decays to zero and if it is too large,
the waveform becomes distorted
To produce a constant oscillation, the level of the energy fed back to
the C network must be accurately controlled Then there must be some form of
automatic amplitude or gain control when the amplitude tries to vary from a
reference voltage either up or down To maintain a stable oscillation the overall
gain of the circuit must be equal to one or unity Any less and the oscillations
will not start or die away to zero, any more the oscillations will occur but the
amplitude will become clipped by the supply rails causing distortion Consider
the circuit below
Basic Transistor C Oscillator Circuit
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A Bipolar Transistor is used as the C oscillators amplifier with the
tuned C tank circuit acts as the collector load Another coil 2 is connected
between the base and the emitter of the transistor whose electromagnetic field
is "mutually" coupled with that of coil Mutual inductance exists between the
two circuits The changing current flowing in one coil circuit induces, by
electromagnetic induction, a potential voltage in the other (transformer effect)
so as the oscillations occur in the tuned circuit, electromagnetic energy is
transferred from coil to coil 2 and a voltage of the same frequency as that in
the tuned circuit is applied between the base and emitter of the transistor In
this way the necessary automatic feedback voltage is applied to the amplifying
transistor
The amount of feedback can be increased or decreased by altering the coupling
between the two coils and 2 When the circuit is oscillating its impedance is
resistive and the collector and base voltages are 180
o
out of phase In order to
maintain oscillations (called frequency stability) the voltage applied to the tuned
circuit must be "in-phase" with the oscillations occurring in the tuned circuit
Therefore, we must introduce an additional 180
o
phase shift into the feedback
path between the collector and the base This is achieved by winding the coil
of 2 in the correct direction relative to coil giving us the correct amplitude
and phase relationships for the Oscillators circuit or by connecting a phase
shift network between the output and input of the amplifier
The C Oscillator is therefore a "Sinusoidal Oscillator" or a "Harmonic
Oscillator" as it is more commonly called C oscillators can generate high
frequency sine waves for use in radio frequency (RF) type applications with the
transistor amplifier being of a Bipolar Transistor or FET Harmonic Oscillators
come in many different forms because there are many different ways to
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construct an C filter network and amplifier with the most common being
the Hartley C Oscillator, Colpitts C Oscillator, Armstrong
Oscillator and Clapp Oscillator to name a few
The Colpitts Oscillator
The Colpitts Oscillator, named after its inventor Edwin Colpitts is another type
of C oscillator design In many ways, the Colpitts oscillator is the exact
opposite of the Hartley Oscillator we looked at in the previous tutorial Just
like the Hartley oscillator, the tuned tank circuit consists of an C resonance
sub-circuit connected between the collector and the base of a single stage
transistor amplifier producing a sinusoidal output waveform
The basic configuration of the Colpitts Oscillator resembles that of the artley
Oscillator but the difference this time is that the centre tapping of the tank sub-
circuit is now made at the junction of a "capacitive voltage divider" network
instead of a tapped autotransformer type inductor as in the Hartley oscillator

Colpitts Oscillator Circuit
The Colpitts oscillator uses a capacitor voltage divider as its feedback source
The two capacitors, C1 and C2 are placed across a common inductor, as
shown so that C1, C2 and forms the tuned tank circuit the same as for the
Hartley oscillator circuit The advantage of this type of tank circuit configuration
is that with less self and mutual inductance in the tank circuit, frequency
stability is improved along with a more simple design
As with the Hartley oscillator, the Colpitts oscillator uses a single stage bipolar
transistor amplifier as the gain element which produces a sinusoidal output
Consider the circuit below
Basic Colpitts Oscillator Circuit
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The transistor amplifiers emitter is connected to the junction of
capacitors, C1 and C2 which are connected in series and act as a simple voltage
divider When the power supply is firstly applied, capacitors C1 and C2 charge
up and then discharge through the coil The oscillations across the capacitors
are applied to the base-emitter junction and appear in the amplified at the
collector output The amount of feedback depends on the values
of C1 and C2 with the smaller the values of C the greater will be the feedback
The required external phase shift is obtained in a similar manner to that in the
Hartley oscillator circuit with the required positive feedback obtained for
sustained un-damped oscillations The amount of feedback is determined by the
ratio of C1 and C2 which are generally "ganged" together to provide a constant
amount of feedback so as one is adjusted the other automatically follows The
frequency of oscillations for a Colpitts oscillator is determined by the resonant
frequency of the C tank circuit and is given as:

where C
T
is the capacitance of C1 and C2 connected in series and is given as:

The configuration of the transistor amplifier is of a Common Emitter
Amplifier with the output signal 180
o
out of phase with regards to the input
signal The additional 180
o
phase shift require for oscillation is achieved by the
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fact that the two capacitors are connected together in series but in parallel with
the inductive coil resulting in overall phase shift of the circuit being zero or
360
o
Resistors, R1 and R2provide the usual stabilizing C bias for the
transistor in the normal manner while the capacitor acts as a C-blocking
capacitors The radio-frequency choke (RFC) is used to provide a high reactance
(ideally open circuit) at the frequency of oscillation, ( Jr ) and a low resistance
at C

The total energy U present at any instant in an oscillating C circuit is
given by

If we assume the circuit resistance to be zero, there is no energy
transfer to Joule heat and U remains constant with time. This leads to
where U is a constant and


Now. Q and I are not independent variables, being related by
Differentiating yields
Substituting these two expressions into Eq. (2) leads to


The RC Oscillator
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In a RC Oscillator the input is shifted 180
o
through the amplifier stage and
180
o
again through a second inverting stage giving us "180
o
+ 180
o
= 360
o
" of
phase shift which is the same as 0
o
thereby giving us the required positive
feedback In other words, the phase shift of the feedback loop should be "0"
In a Resistance-Capacitance Oscillator or simply an RC Oscillator, we
make use of the fact that a phase shift occurs between the input to a RC
network and the output from the same network by using RC elements in the
feedback branch, for example
RC Phase-Shift Network


The circuit on the left shows a single resistor-capacitor network and whose
output voltage "leads" the input voltage by some angle less than 90
o
An ideal
RC circuit would produce a phase shift of exactly 90
o
The amount of actual
phase shift in the circuit depends upon the values of the resistor and the
capacitor, and the chosen frequency of oscillations with the phase angle ( O )
being given as:
Phase Angle
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In our simple example above, the values of R and C have been chosen so that
at the required frequency the output voltage leads the input voltage by an angle
of about 60
o
Then the phase angle between each successive RC section
increases by another 60
o
giving a phase difference between the input and
output of 180
o
(3 x 60
o
) as shown by the following vector diagram


Then by connecting together three such RC networks in series we can produce a
total phase shift in the circuit of 180
o
at the chosen frequency and this forms
the bases of a "phase shift oscillator" otherwise known as a RC
Oscillator circuit
We know that in an amplifier circuit either using a Bipolar Transistor or an
Operational Amplifier, it will produce a phase-shift of 180
o
between its input and
output If a RC phase-shift network is connected between this input and output
of the amplifier, the total phase shift necessary for regenerative feedback will
become 360
o
, ie the feedback is "in-phase" Then to achieve the required
phase shift in an RC oscillator circuit is to use multiple RC phase-shifting
networks such as the circuit below
Basic RC Oscillator Circuit
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The RC Oscillator which is also called a Phase Shift Oscillator, produces a
sine wave output signal using regenerative feedback from the resistor-capacitor
combination This regenerative feedback from the RC network is due to the
ability of the capacitor to store an electric charge, (similar to the C tank
circuit) This resistor-capacitor feedback network can be connected as shown
above to produce a leading phase shift (phase advance network) or
interchanged to produce a lagging phase shift (phase retard network) the
outcome is still the same as the sine wave oscillations only occur at the
frequency at which the overall phase-shift is 360
o
By varying one or more of
the resistors or capacitors in the phase-shift network, the frequency can be
varied and generally this is done using a 3-ganged variable capacitor
If all the resistors, R and the capacitors, C in the phase shift network are equal
in value, then the frequency of oscillations produced by the RC oscillator is
given as:

O Where:
O J is the Output Frequency in Hertz
O R is the Resistance in Ohms
O C is the Capacitance in Farads
O N is the number of RC stages (in our example N = 3)
Since the resistor-capacitor combination in the RC Oscillator circuit also acts
as an attenuator producing an attenuation of -1/29th (Vo/Vi = ) per stage, the
gain of the amplifier must be sufficient to overcome the losses and in our three
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mesh network above the amplifier gain must be greater than 29 The loading
effect of the amplifier on the feedback network has an effect on the frequency
of oscillations and can cause the oscillator frequency to be up to 25% higher
than calculated Then the feedback network should be driven from a high
impedance output source and fed into a low impedance load such as a common
emitter transistor amplifier but better still is to use an Operational Amplifier as
it satisfies these conditions perfectly
The Op-amp RC Oscillator
When used as RC oscillators, Operational Amplifier RC Oscillators are more
common than their bipolar transistors counterparts The oscillator circuit
consists of a negative-gain operational amplifier and a three section RC network
that produces the 180
o
phase shift The phase shift network is connected from
the op-amps output back to its "non-inverting" input as shown below
Op-amp RC Oscillator Circuit

As the feedback is connected to the non-inverting input, the operational
amplifier is therefore connected in its "inverting amplifier" configuration which
produces the required 180
o
phase shift while the RCnetwork produces the other
180
o
phase shift at the required frequency (180
o
+ 180
o
) Although it is possible
to cascade together only two RC stages to provide the required 180
o
of phase
shift (90
o
+ 90
o
), the stability of the oscillator at low frequencies is poor
One of the most important features of an RC Oscillator is its frequency
stability which is its ability too provide a constant frequency output under
varying load conditions By cascading three or even four RCstages together (4 x
45
o
), the stability of the oscillator can be greatly improved # Oscillators with
four stages are generally used because commonly available operational
amplifiers come in quad IC packages so designing a 4-stage oscillator with
45
o
of phase shift relative to each other is relatively easy
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RC Oscillators are stable and provide a well-shaped sine wave output with the
frequency being proportional to 1/RC and therefore, a wider frequency range is
possible when using a variable capacitor However, RC Oscillators are restricted
to frequency applications because of their bandwidth limitations to produce the
desired phase shift at high frequencies