Sensors – Some Definitions

Sensors • A device that responds to a physical or chemical

stimulus (such as heat, pressure, flow, acceleration, etc)
and affects or generates an electrical signal.

VO Embedded Systems Engineering • Facilitates to quantitatively or qualitatively acquire the

182.111 physical or chemical properties of an object.
Bernhard Huber
• A sensor is a transducer that converts the measurand into
a signal carrying information.

Sensor Input & Actuator Output Classification of Sensors (1)

• Sensors, Actuators • Passive Sensors
– interact with the controlled object – A sensor whose physical measurement variable
controls or affects the energy of something/someone
else.
• Input, Output Devices – e.g. strain gauge (“DMS”), capacitive sensors
– interaction man - computer
• Active Sensors
• There is no need to distinguish sensors & input devices – A sensor that generates by itself some form of energy
in this lesson. as its measurement signal.
– e.g. foto transistor, piezo-electric sensors
3 4

Classification of Sensors (2) Classification of Sensors (3)

• mechanical quantities (e.g. pressure, position, force) • Nature of Output Signal
• thermal quantities (e.g. temperature, heat flow) – analog output: continuous signal in its magnitude and/or
temporal or spatial content (e.g. temperature)
• electrostatic and magnetic fields – digital output: output signal in the form of discrete steps or states
• radiation intensity (e.g. electromagnetic) (e.g. switch)
• chemical quantities (e.g. humidity, gas) • Physical Measurement Variable
– resistance
• biological quantities (e.g. antigens, antibodies)
– inductance
– capacitance
selecting the most appropriate
– etc.
sensor is not a trivial task

5 6

1
Ideal Sensor vs. Real World Real World
• Ideal Sensor: • Measurement Error
– transforms highly linearly a single physical or chemical – absolute error: difference between measured (actual) value and
desired value
measurand into an electrical signal while being resistant to
environmental influences – relative error: difference between measured value and desired
value related to the desired value

• Real World: • Error Classes

– gain error, clipping – systematic error: reproducible (calculation, measurement)
measurement deviation (e.g. bias, drift), which is in principle
– offset (bias), drift correctable (e.g. calibration)
– nonlinearity – random error: measurement error that is due to random causes
– hysteresis (e.g. noise), in principle not correctable (but statistical analysis
may improve the measurement)
– digitization error

7 8

Measurand-Measurement-Interface Sensors with Digital Interface (1)

• Measurand - a physical or chemical quantity, property, or condition • Digital 1 Bit
that is measured – push-button
– digital: position of a switch (on/off)
– on/off switch
– analog: distance, time, temperature
• Digital Multiple Bits
• Measurement – the act or process of measuring
– e.g. measure distance (finite resolution ⇒ digital)
– parallel
• dil switch
• Interface
• absolute position encoder (with n parallel lines)
– analog: continuous output signal
– serial
– digital: discrete output signal
• UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter)
– e.g. Sharp GP2D12 IR sensor: transport digital measurement via • SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) – synchronous serial
analog interface interface

9 10

Sensors with Digital Interface (2) Sensors with Analog Interface

Parallel Digital Interface • analog in the value domain (ADC)
• Problem: asynchronous state changes – voltage, current, resistance/impedance
– e.g. an 8 bit value that changes from 0xFF to 0x00
during read operation
– the value read is not deterministic
• analog in the timing domain
• Solution: – frequency (1/duration)
– repeat until two equal values are read – duration (e.g. pulse width modulation - PWM)
(requirement: read operation is faster than evolution)
– use a Gray Code (when increment is 1)
11 12

2
Selecting a Sensor (1) Selecting a Sensor (2)
• What should be measured? • Interface
– distance, brightness, … – digital, analog, restrictions, dynamics …
– sometimes it is easier to measure a related value • Field of application - Requirements
(voltage instead of current) – mechanical stress (e.g. heat, pressure, etc)
– costs (mass production vs. prototype setup)
• Can we access the physical/chemical property directly?
– e.g. temperature within a melting pot • Never forget the physics behind the sensor
– Example:
• How should it be measured? • two infrared sensors (triangulation)
– measuring wheel, propagation delay, triangulation • almost all measurements are rubbish
• beam from sensor A was detected by senor B
– required precision
13 14

Some Common Sensing Methods

Measurand Method

Displacement / Position resistive, capacitive, opto-electronic, Hall effect, variable reluctance

triangulation, measuring wheel, radar, echelon, capacitive/inductive

Distance proximity
Some Sensors
Temperature Thermistor (NTC, PTC), infrared radiation, thermocouple

Pressure piezoresisitve, capacitive, piezoelectric, strain gauge

Velocity Hall effect, opto-electronic, variable reluctance

Luminance photo-resistor, photo-diode, photo-transistor

15

Resistive Sensors Resistive Sensors

L
R =ρ
• Common: passive sensors, variation of resistance R A • Potentiometer
• Potentiometer – changing L due to mechanical displacement (slide, – e.g. angle sensor (105°), 5k Ohm linear
rotation)
– liquid level sensor, rotation and angle sensor
• Thermistor – change of resistance due to ΔR = k ⋅ ΔT
change of temperature, NTC (negative k), PTC (positive k) • Thermistor
– heat sensor, heat flow sensor – e.g. PTC with range 0 … 55° C
• Piezoresistive Sensors – resistor diffused in silicon, compression
decreases resistance, tension increases resistance
(figures taken from RS components
– mechanical stress online catalogue)

17 18

3
Capacitive Sensors Capacitive Sensors
A
• Common: passive sensors, variation of capacitance C C = e0 ⋅ e r • Liquid level sensor
d
• Pressure sensor – on/off switch
– typically capacitor diffused into silicon chip – commonly used for plastics and
– distance between capacitor plates is varied due to mechanical stress
fluids
• Liquid level sensor
– typically two or three electrodes (measured object itself forms one
electrode) • Capacitive proximity switch
– Detection of variation of capacity due variation of d and/or A – contact-free detection of non-
• Capacitive proximity switch conductive materials (wood,
– Contact-free detection of liquids or solid materials glas, PVC, …)
– variation of er – configurable sensitivity (figures taken from RS components online catalogue)

19 20

Further passive sensors Revolution Sensor

• Inductive sensor • Speed indicator signal provided by DC fan (ESE-LU board)
– change of inductance due to change of the reluctance – special kind of on/off switch
– typically by displacement of the core – open-collector output
– or variation of distance and area affected by magnetic field – two pulses per revolution

• Magnetostrictive sensor
– manipulation of permeability due to mechanical stress

• Push button, on/off Switch

the following examples are
active sensors (figure taken from ebmpapst DC
fan data sheet)

21 22

Optical Sensors (1) Optical Sensors (2)

• Position Encoder • Incremental position encoder
– incremental position encoder
(PC mouse)
• two square waves 90° phase-
delayed
– absolute position encoder
(parallel)
• n wires
• Gray encoded position

23 24

4
Optical Sensors (3) Optical Sensors (4)
• Absolute position encoder (5 bit gray code) • Luminance Sensor
– photo electric effect (photo transistor, photo diode,
photo resistor)
– output signal mostly analog
– characteristic: linear & non-linear
– some luminance sensors are programmable (gain,
alarm limit, …)
– e.g. NSL-19M51 photo resistor (ESE-LU board):
• photo conductive cell
(figure taken from www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de) • resistance from 20-100K Ohm (light) to 20M Ohm (dark)

25 26

Piezoelectric Sensor Hall Effect Sensor

• Piezoelectric Effect (P. and J. Curie, 1880) • Hall Effect (Edwin Hall 1879)
– ability of crystals to generate voltage as a response to – generation of potential difference
I⋅B
mechanical stress (Hall voltage) in a conductive material VH = A H
located in a stationary magnetic field d
– materials: quartz (SiO2), cane sugar, topaz through which electrical current is
– in static operation the behavior is similar to a flowing
capacitor
• active sensor for measuring pressure, force, or • active sensor for measuring
acceleration (e.g. piezoelectric microphone) – displacement
– velocity
• above 846°K this piezoelectric effect is lost (Curie-
Temperature) – inductive proximity switch

27 28

Summary
• Sensor definition and classification
• Ideal sensors vs. real world
• Measurand - Measurement - Interface
• Selecting a sensor
• Some sensors in detail

29