Sensors and Sensing Systems

Lab
 Text-book:
 Sensor Systems FUNDAMENTALS AND APPLICATIONS
 Clarence W. de Silva
 Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, 2017.
 Sensing and Sensors

 Sensing: technique to gather information about physical

objects or areas
 Sensor (transducer): object performing a sensing task;
converting one form of energy in the physical world into
electrical energy

 Examples of sensors from biology: the human body

 eyes: capture optical information (light)
 ears: capture acoustic information (sound)
 nose: captures olfactory information (smell)
 skin: captures tactile information (shape, texture)
 Sensing (Data Acquisition)

 Sensors capture phenomena in the physical world (process, system, plant)

 Signal conditioning prepare captured signals for further use (amplification,
attenuation, filtering of unwanted frequencies, etc.)
 Analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) translates analog signal into digital signal
 Digital signal is processed and output is often given (via digital-analog converter
and signal conditioner) to an actuator (device able to control the physical
world)
Sensors
 A sensor is a device
that converts a
physical quantity to
an electrical signal,
and therefore either
provides a voltage or
a current, or causes a
change of its
resistance.
 More generally, the
impedance of the
sensor, which also
comprises capacitive
and inductive
sensors, may change.
Sensor features
 The desirable features of any generic sensors are
 (a) Sensitivity,
 this represents the detection capability with respect to the sample
concentration or amount
 (b) Selectivity,
 this is the ability of any sensor to detect any desirable physical quantity among
a variety of other nondesirable quantities
 (c) Response time,
 this feature indicates how fast a sensor can react to the changes and generate
electrical quantity depending upon the environmental changes
 (d) Operating life
 this is total lifetime of the sensor as measured by the repeatability of the
measurement data within a specific threshold set by the application
Sensor Types
 Physical property to be monitored determines type of
required sensor
Sensor Classification
 Power Supply Requirement
 Active Sensor: if a sensor needs external power supply to generate
the output signal, it is called an active sensor.
 Passive Sensor – if the sensor output signal is generated from the
sensor input signal or because of the changes of the sensing element, it
is called a passive sensor.
 Types of Output Signal
 Analog Sensor – the output changes in a continuous way, and the
information is usually embedded in the amplitude of the output signal.
 Digital Sensor – the output changes in discrete steps.
Measurement System
 Most of the measuring equipments in our everyday life depend
upon electrical signal, and hence rely on sensors. Electronic
measurement systems provide greater flexibility and ease of
operation. This is because:
(a) Sensors can be designed for any
physical or biological entity,
(b) Sensor performance can be enhanced
by the incorporation of electronic signal
processing,
(c) A variety of microelectronic circuits
are available for signal conditioning,
(d) Various display options exist for
electronic signals, and
(e) Wireless communication is a versatile
means of communication for electrical
signals
 Environmental Monitoring
Applications
 Health Care
Emerging Sensors and Sensor Technologies
 Electrochemical Sensors
 Electrochemical sensors operate by reacting with the liquid or gas of
interest and producing an electrical signal proportional to the sample
concentration
 A typical electrochemical sensor manifests three parts:
 (a) Sensing electrode or working electrode
 (b) Counter electrode, and
 (c) Reference electrode
Emerging Sensors and Sensor Technologies

The gas that diffuses through the barrier reacts at the surface of the sensing
electrode involving either an oxidation or a reduction mechanism
Emerging Sensors and Sensor Technologies
 Electromechanical Sensors
 MEMS, or Micro Electro-Mechanical System, is a chip-based technology
where sensors.
 These are a set of devices, and the characterization of these devices
can be done by their tiny size & the designing mode. The designing of
these sensors can be done with the 1- 100-micrometer components.
 Usually, these sensors include mechanical micro-actuators, micro-
structures, micro-electronics, and micro-sensors in one package.

Types of MEMS

• MEMS accelerometers
• MEMS gyroscopes
• MEMS pressure sensors
• MEMS magnetic field sensors
 Polymer materials are now being widely used in several sectors
of MEMS fabrication, including substrates, structural thin films,
functional thin films, adhesion and packaging, coating, and surface
chemical functionalization

Optical micrograph of a patch of polyimide multimodal tactile sensing skin

A microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device for protein detection

Analog sensors
 Resistance-based sensors
 It is based on the photoelectric effect: the emission of electrons when
electromagnetic radiation, such as light, hits a material. Electrons emitted in this
manner are called photoelectrons.
 light-dependent resistor or LDR: It changes its resistance depending on the
exposure to light (100  - M)
Analog sensors: light-dependent resistor (LDR)
Bài tập về nhà
 Thiết kế và thi công mạch điện tử tự động bật đèn chiếu sáng sử
dụng quang trở
 Khảo sát điện trở của quang trở khi có ánh sáng và không có
ánh sáng chiếu vào
Analog sensors: PT100 temperature sensor
 It is a calibrated platinum-based sensor with a resistance of exactly 100
at 0oC

PT100 temperature sensor

The linearization equation is:
Rt = R0 * (1 + A* t + B*t2 + C*(t-100)*
t3)
Where:
Rt is the resistance at temperature t,
R0 is the resistance at 0 °C, and
A= 3.9083 E–3
B = –5.775 E–7
C = –4.183 E–12 (below 0 °C), or
C = 0 (above 0 °C)
PT100 temperature sensor
Analog sensors
 Resistance-based sensors

potentiometer fluid levels of liquids sensor

gas sensors
Analog sensors
 Voltage-based sensors
 An example of a sensor that directly produces a voltage at its output
pin is the LM35 temperature sensor, which is a silicon-bandgap
temperature sensor.

Linear + 10-mV/°C Scale Factor VBE = VBE;1 - VBE;2 = kT/e ln(j1/j2)

jn current densities across the base-emitter junctions of two bipolar transistors

the LM35 produces an
output voltage Vs that is
related to the
temperature T by
Vs = T/100
Analog sensors
 Voltage-based sensors

Thermocouples and thermopile are temperature sensors

MLX90614 contact-free thermometer

Analog sensors
 Voltage-based sensors
 The ADXL335 is a three-axis integrated acceleration sensor
(accelerometer.)
Analog sensors
 Voltage-based sensors
 The SM-24 is another type of accelerometer called a geophone
Analog sensors
 Current-based sensors
 The BPW34 is a PIN diode that generates a current of up to 100 nA
depending on the irradiance of up to mW/cm2

BPW34 pin diode IR-sensitive BPX38 and an SFH3310, sensitive in the visible light
Signal Conditioning:
 Voltage divider: Hoàng – An – Nhân – Nhật
 Amplifier: Tuấn Anh – Thành – Hảo – Thảo
 Filter: Bảo – Long – Hiếu - Tài
 Supply voltage: Hiếu – Hải Hà – Linh – Chức

 Tìm hiểu nguyên lý hoạt động

 Tính toán các giá trị vào/ra, các thành phần của mạch điện
Voltage divider

Vout = ????????
Amplifier

A non-inverting (left) and inverting (right) amplier

Vout = V+(R1 +R2)/R2; I = (Vin – V-)/R4 = (V- - Vout)/R5:

Filter
Low-pass High-pass

Vout = (Vin/iC)/(R + 1/iC) Vout = ViniRC/(1+iRC)

= Vin/(1+iRC)
 Band-pass

A simple band-pass (left) and band-stop (right) filter

The cutoff freq. is 1/R1C1 The resonance frequency

c2 = 1/LC
Analog-to-digital conversion
 Flash ADC
 Successive approximation ADC
 Delta-sigma ADC

ADCs add noise to the measurements, because they cannot measure voltage
differences smaller than that corresponding to the least significant bit. Thus, they
introduce a quantization error.
Supply voltage
Digital Sensors
 Digital sensors that do not require an external ADC, but report
their measurement values directly to the microcontroller in
digital from
 Buttons and switches
 On/off devices
 I2C devices
 SPI devices
 RS-232 devices
 Others
Buttons and switches
On-off devices
Digital Sensors

 PIR proximity sensor: senses the change in the infrared radiation level, which
announces the presence of living beings.
 The sensors are based on collecting the incident infrared radiation with a
Fresnel lens, which is the dome visible, on a pyroelectric sensor.
 The PIR acts as a digital output: pin to flip high or low
Digital Sensors

 HC-SR04 distance sensor which operates like a sonar (It emits a short
ultrasonic 40 kHz sound burst and records the duration until the echo
arrives)

 A pin on the device goes high when the pulse is emitted, and returns
to low once the echo arrives or some specified timeout expires.
L = t/2v;
(v = 340 m/s)
I2C devices
 A large number of sensors have some logic built in and support a high-
level communication protocol. An example is the I2C protocol
operating on the I2C bus.
 The physical connection to devices supporting I2C only needs four
wires:
 Ground,
 supply voltage Vcc,
 clock SCL,
 data SDA.

Up to 112 devices using 7-bit

addressing and up to 1008
devices using 10-bit
addressing
I2C devices
 baro-metric pressure sensors

BMP180 barometric pressure sensor

I2C devices
• accelerometer and gyroscope to measure acceleration and
angular velocities in three spatial dimensions

MPU-6050
I2C devices
 The ADXL345 is a low-power, 3-axis MEMS accelerometer
modules with both I2C and SPI interfaces.

MEMS - Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems

The sensor consists of a micro-machined structure

on a silicon wafer. The structure is suspended by
polysilicon springs which allow it to deflect
smoothly in any direction when subject to
acceleration in the X,Y and/or Z axis.
SPI devices
 6 Wire connection
 Ground
 Supply voltage,
 the clock CLK,
 one line to send information from the master to the slave (MOSI, for master-
out slave-in),
 one line for the reverse direction (MISO for master-in slave-out),
 a chip-select line CS (or Slave-select - SS) to identify the currently active slave.
Digital Sensors
 SPI devices

GPS receiver and a DHT11 humidity sensor

Digital Sensors
 RS232 devices
 Several devices report their measurement values by sending them via
the asynchronous RS-232 protocol

LV-EZx distance sensor

Digital Sensors
 Others

Shinyei PPD42NS particle sensor and a GP2Y1010AU0F dust

sensor
Actuators
 Even though sensors are the main topic of this course,
sometimes we need to turn devices on and off or we need to
move a sensor very accurately, with much higher precision than
we can achieve by hand. In such situations we need an actuator
to move it in a controlled way.
 E.g: motors, valves, or switches,
Switches
 Light emitting diodes and optocouplers
MOTORS
 DC motors
 Servomotors and model-servos
 The term servo refers to using the motor in conjunction with a
position encoder in a closed-loop feedback, or servo, loop. The motor
speed is continuously adjusted to reduce the difference between the
desired position and the actual position, as reported by the encoder
 the modest cousin of the servomotor, the model-servo, often simply
referred to as a servo
 Stepper motors
 Stepper motors change the angular position of a shaft in small discrete
steps, such that counting the steps gives the position. In this way, no
feedback or servomechanism is needed to achieve high repeatability,
and the motor can be operated open loop.
Microcontroller
 Arduino UNO
 ESP 8266 and NodeMCU