Methods of Experimental Physics Semester 1 2005

Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers

8.1 Introduction
Whenever one needs to make a measurement it usually first necessary to convert the quantity to be
measured into an electrical quantity. For the purposes of the rest of this lecture we are going to exclude
those low precision situations in which we convert the quantity into some visual change oberved directly
by the experimenter i.e. measuring temperature with a thermometer, or measuring a needle deflection
on a weighing scale.
In this lecture we will consider first the general case of measurement and then turn our attention to several
actual examples. In this lecture I have closely followed Malmstadt et al, Dunlap, and Frank’s notes from
previous years. You can check out http://newton.ex.ac.uk/teaching/resources/CDHW/Sensors/ for
more details of sensors.

8.2 The Measurement Process

Quantity Difference Reference

to be Detector Standard
measured

Figure 1: The general measurement process

The block diagram in Figure 1 demonstrates the general process for making a measurement. Some sort
of difference detector (generally this has an electrical output - but not necessarily) takes a comparative
measurement of the reference standard and the quantity of interest. The degree to which accuracy of
the difference detector feeds into the overall accuracy of the measurement depends on the measurement
type.
In a direct measurement device the input from the reference standard delivers either no information or
just gives a constant offset to the result. In these cases essentially all of the output information comes
from the difference detector and thus the accuracy of this transfer function directly delivers the accuracy
of the result. An example of this would be the deflection of the pointer on an analog multimeter.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is a null measurement. In this case, the value delivered by the
reference standard is varied in a sufficiently fine means that its value becomes equal to the measurement
of interest. In this case one doesn’t really need a calibrated output from the difference detector at
all. As long as the “zero” is in the correct place, and the device has sufficient sensitivity then one
will achieve the aim. Common examples of null measurements are the measurement of voltage using a
“digital potentiometer” (look back to lecture 2), or even the measurement of mass using a mass-balance.
Because the null comparison technique only weakly depends on the properties of the difference detector
it is considered to be the most accurate.
In many measurements it is either inconvenient or too slow to exactly balance the reference standard
and the quantity to be measured (“nulling” the detector). In this case one prefers to bring the reference

8-1
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-2

standard close to the value of the quantity to be measured, and then one measures the residual amount
with a relatively well calibrated difference detector. In this case the inaccuracy of the difference detector
is diluted by the ratio of the quantity that remains to be measured against the total measurement.
We will follow the approach outlined in Malmstadt et al to split transducers into Energy Conversion
Transducers, Resistive Transducers, and Current Transducers

8.3 Energy Conversion Transducers

These devices require no external power source as they derive their energy from the actual quantity to be
measured. In order to maximize the linearity of the output, one can choose to short-circuit the output
and measure the output current, or to run it in an open-circuit mode where the voltage is measured.
The devices that we will discuss here are photovoltaic cells (solar cells), thermocouples, and velocity
transducers.

8.3.1 Photovoltaic Cells

The first conventional photovoltaic cells were produced in the late 1950s, and throughout the 1960s were
principally used to provide electrical power for earth-orbiting satellites. The device directly converts
incident light into electrical energy. When light falls on a junction between dissimilar materials it can
move charge carriers and create a potential difference between the materials. The potential difference is
a function of the incident flux. Usually, the open circuit voltage saturates at low intensities, while on
the other hand, the short-circuit current can work linearly over large ranges of incident light. Selenium
cells have a response that is not that different to the human eye and they often find use is measuring
the amounts of light that would be perceived by a human observer. For example, selenium cells find use
in light meters for photography. The second main type of photovoltaic cell is based on silicon. It can
provide large amounts of current and thus finds use as power source or solar battery.
Typically, these device have a large amount of capacitance and therefore their response speed is very
slow. They thus don’t find use in the laboratory when a quick measurement is required. However, their
relatively low cost, high linearity (in the current mode) and the potential to be made in a large size
means that for low speed light measurement they are ideal. They are also the quietest light detector
as the absence of an external electrical bias prevents the generation of shot noise associated with dark
currents that afflict other light detection techniques.

8.3.2 Thermocouple

M1 M1

M2

T1 T2

Figure 2: Two ways to hook up a thermocouple

Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-3

A thermocouple converts thermal energy into electrical energy. The thermocouple works by creating
a voltage difference between two wires that is proportional to the temperature at the junction. This
is called the Seebeck effect in honor of Thomas Seebeck, who first noticed the phenomena in 1821. It
was also noticed that different metal combinations have a different voltage difference. The Seebeck
coefficient is necessary to characterize the specific thermocouple being used. The Seebeck coefficient is
also temperature dependent.

Figure 3: A graph of the temperature sensitivity of various thermocouples. K : chromel/alumel, T: Cop-

per/Constantan, J: Iron/Constantan, E: Chromel/Constantan R: Platinium, 13% Rhodium/Platinium
etc

The Seebeck effect occurs due to primarily three phenomena. Initially, the work-function of the metals
making up the thermocouple creates a current. The electrons at the junction move to the metal with
a higher work-function and create a current, called a drift current, and therefore a potential difference.
This movement of electrons will create an electric field, which will oppose further electrons from moving
to the new metal. Another current called a diffusion current, will be created due to the difference in
electron density between the two metals. The drift current is dependent on temperature because certain
metals will expand more than others. Thermal expansion also has an effect on the work function of a
material, which will affect the initial current, and the corresponding electric field. Therefore, the voltage
and potential difference attributed to the Seebeck effect is actually due to these three phenomena and
their temperature dependent equilibrium point.
When two dissimilar metals are connected together as shown in either of the ways given in Figure 2,
the voltage generated between the two ends is a function of the temperature difference between the two
junctions. One could use just a single junction, but in this case the measurement would include the
thermoelectric voltages that are generated between the measurement instrument itself and the two sides
of the junction. By using the arrangement shown in Figure 2(a) we hope that the two junctions at the
instruments are essentially at the same temperature. If we use the technique given in Figure 2(b) then
we can choose lead materials that have low thermoelectric power when connected to the typical metals
found on instrumentation inputs.
The transfer function for a chromel/alumel (Chromel is 90% Ni and 10%Cr, Alumel is 95% Ni, 2% Mn,
1% Si, 2% Al) thermocouple can be expressed as

V = AT2 + 1/2BT22 + 1/3CT23

where T2 is the temperature of the of one of the junctions and T1 is held at some reference temperature
(perhaps 0 C). For carefully chosen metal combinations, the coefficients B and C can be small. The
coefficient A has a value of about 4 ×10−6 V/◦ C for the chromel/alumel combination. For other types of
thermocouple you can see the sensitivity on Figure 3. For low precision measurements one can also buy
meters in which an internal voltage standard is used to generate the voltage associated with the reference
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-4

standard. In this case you can dispense with the requirement for a junction at a reference temperature,
although, this does mean that you end up with the problem mentioned above of the thermoelectric
voltages between the meter and the two sides of the junction.
One good feature about thermocouples is that they are good for high temperatures. For example, the
chromel/alumel combination is good for 1400◦ C. Since the voltages available from thermocouples are
typically pretty small they are often amplified before they are measured. As mentioned earlier in this
course, thermoelectric voltages generated in sensitive voltage measurement circuits can be a significant
source of error.

8.3.3 Electromagnetic Transducers

N S

(a) simple (b) double coil

Figure 4: A diagram of a velocity sensor

If a conductor is moved in a magnetic field, a voltage is induced in the conductor proportional to the
rate at which the conductor moves through the field lines. This is the basis of an electrical generator, it
is also the basis of a loudspeaker (where the effect is used in reverse - a current through the conductor
is used to generate a force when placed in a magnetic field.
A simple form of an electromagnetic velocity transducer is shown in Figure 4(a). The object that is
moving can be attached to either the magnet or the coil. Unfortunately, this system is only going to
work if the magnet protrudes out beyond the end of the coil (otherwise the effect of one pole cancels the
effect at the other). To overcome this, the slightly more complex arrangement shown in Figure 4(b) is
used. The output of the two coils is differenced in a following amplifier.

8.3.4 Hall Effect Transducers

An important type of interaction called the Hall effect occurs when a current carrying conductor is placed
in a magnetic field. In this case a voltage appears perpendicular to the direction of the current and to the
magnetic field. The voltage, termed the Hall voltage, VH = kic B/d where k is the Hall coefficient, ic is
the current, B is the magnetic field strength, and d is the width of the current strip. The Hall coefficient
depends on the material and the temperature and is extremely large for certain semiconductors. The
voltage is around mV per kilogauss. Although in principal one can increase this by turning up the current
or decreasing the thickness, in the end these heat the strip and changes the characteristics.
The device used to measure magnetic field based on this effect is called the Hall probe. The typical
accuracy of such a device is around 500 ppm with a range of ±1 T. The Hall probe has a reasonable
bandwidth of several 10s of kHz.

8.4 Resistive Transducers

A second class of transducers is based upon changes in the resistance of a device as some physical
parameter is changed. The resistance of a device is given by R = ρl/a where ρ is the resistivity, and
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-5

l and a are the length and area of the conductor. Changes in resistance can (obviously) be made by
changing the length, area or resistivity (say by changing the charge carrier concentration). The strain
gauge is based upon changing the dimensions of the resistor, while the thermistor and photoconductive
transducer rely on changing the concentration of charge carriers.

8.4.1 Thermistor

Figure 5: A typical dependence of temperature on resistance for a 100 kΩ thermistor

Thermistors are based on semiconductors. The concentration of charge carriers changes very rapidly
with a change in temperature leading to a rapid decrease in resistivity as temperature increases (this is
the opposite dependence to the resistance of a normal metallic conductor). A typical resistance against
temperature curve is shown in Figure 5. The high slope of this curve makes the thermistor an excellent
tool for highly sensitive temperature measurements (down to µK in the best cases, 10−4 K more typically).
Thermistors are useful in the range of -100◦ C through to +300◦ C. One must be careful however not to
pass too much heat through the thermistor as the self-heating from the measuring current can result in
errors.
Most often thermistors are placed in a Wheatstone bridge configuration as this is a good way to measure
resistance without the need for a precision voltage source. Modern high quality multimeters can however
make measurements of resistance that are essentially as good as a Wheatstone bridge. This allows one
to dispense with the need for a bridge configuration for most purposes, excepting the most sensitive.

8.4.2 Carbon or Carbon-glass Thermometers

The most common thermometer for the cryogenic environment is a standard commercially available
carbon resistor (generally called Allen-Bradley’s after the manufacturer). Typical resistance curves show
a 1/T temperature dependence (as shown in Figure 6). The more general dependence is something like
log(R) + K/ log(R) = A + B/T where A, B, K are coefficients found from a calibration by measurements
at three fixed points. The advantages of a carbon resistor are that it is cheap, it operates over a fairly large
temperature range (0.3 K - 77 K), and it has an excellent sensitivity in the 0.3-20 K regime. Unfortunately,
as with thermistors, each device has to be calibrated separately (can purchase pre-calibrated but they
are expensive - $K), after cycling to cryogenic temperatures and back their value can change, resistance
tends to change with time. Carbon glass resistors, which make use of carbon impregnated into a porous
glass) tend to avoid most of these instabilities and are therefore preferred in high accuracy situations.
They cost a lot more than standard carbon resistors (around $500-$1K each) but they are basically much
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-6

(a) Temperature coefficient for carbon thermometer (b) carbon-glass dependence

Figure 6: Resistance vs Temperature for Carbon thermometers

better behaved. The temperature dependence of a carbon and carbon glass thermometer are shown in
Figure 6.

8.4.3 Photoconductive element

Relative
Response

Wavelength

Figure 7: The typical response curve of several photoresistors

When light falls on a semiconductor (of the right wavelength) it is possible to change the carrier con-
centration by a large factor. Thus one observes that the resistivity falls rapidly as the light intensity
increases. These devices are also called photoresistors for obvious reasons. Some typical response curves
are shown in Figure 7. In order for the material to absorb the light, the incident light must have enough
energy to promote the electrons across the band-gap of the material. If the wavelength is much shorter
than the bandgap then the photons are usually absorbed in the front of the device and do not get to
the active area. Thus there is both an upper and lower limit to the sensitivity curve of the devices as a
function of wavelength.
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-7

Figure 8: Some typical strain gauge resistor patterns

8.4.4 Strain gauge

If a resistor of fine wire is distorted then its resistance changes as a result of dimensional change. The re-
sult is a resistor for which the resistance is related to strain. Such a device is called a strain gauge. Strain
gauges find extensive use in mechanical and biological measurements. Often the fine wire is attached to
some flexible insulating substrate such that when the substrate is flexed the actual wire itself is also flexed.
Some strain gauges are made by depositing thin metal film directly onto the substrate (see Figure 8).
Since the resistance change is usually a very small fraction of the total resistance it is very important to use
a very sensitive resistance measurement technique. A second difficulty is that small changes in tempera-
ture of the gauge can masquerade as a change in strain. One most often uses a Wheatstone bridge configu-
ration with a temperature controlled strain gauge in order to maximize the sensitivity of the measurement.
Please check out http://www.vishay.com/brands/measurements_group/strain_gages/mm.htm if you
want to know more about calculating strain gauge sensitivities etc.

8.4.5 Other resistive devices

The platinum resistance thermometer is based on a thin film of platinum on a substrate. The resistance of
this film is measured. The advantage of this device over thermistors is accuracy, reproducibility, linearity
(from -270◦ C to 1000◦ C) and stability. Thermistors on the other hand vary with absorbed moisture,
and even vary within one manufacturing batch to give a different resistance for different temperatures
requiring that they be kept in a dry atmosphere and calibrated beforehand in order to deliver accuracy.
If accuracy is not required however then the thermistor is to be preferred because of its much higher
sensitivity (see Figure 9 for the comparison).

8.5 Current Limited Tranducers

The resistive devices in the previous section are all ohmic devices i.e. they obey Ohms law. In this
section we will discuss devices that are not in accordance with Ohm’s law. In these devices the current
passing through the device will not be proportional to the voltage applied but instead to some external
parameter of interest. The devices we will discuss in this section are the photomultiplier tube and the
photodiode.

8.5.1 Photodiode
If we reverse bias a semiconductor junction (pn junction) then the only current that can flow comes from
available electron-hole pairs in the junction region. If the device is in the dark then these are typically
generated thermally and results in a small leakage current through the device. If the junction is exposed
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-8

Figure 9: Platinum Thermometer sensitivity

Figure 10: The I-V characteristic of an illuminated photodiode

to light of the right wavelength then electron-hole pairs are created in the junction and the current
flowing will be increased proportional to the intensity of light falling on the device (see Figure 10). If
the production rate of electron-hole pairs by light greatly exceeds that of thermally generated pairs then
one can express the photocurrent as I = qe P/(hν) where P is the power falling on the photodiode, ν
is the frequency of the light, qe is the charge on the electron and  is the so-called quantum efficiency
of the device (i.e. what fraction of photons turn into electrons and get to the output electrode). The
quantum efficiency can approach 80-90% for the best devices while it is more typically around 50%.
The photodiode is an extremely fast device. Electrons can cross the device (transit time) in much less
than a nanosecond, while the stray capacitance of the device can be lowered to the level where its response
frequencies can approach 60 GHz (the capacitance is lowered by using an extremely large reverse bias- up
to 50-100 V). More typically photodiode frequencies can approach 1 GHz. Typical photodiode conversion
efficiencies are of the order of 0.5 A/W for infrared radiation, and so for useful sensitivity one needs to
make measurements in the nA-pA region. One can purchase photodiodes with integrated amplification
to make this easier, or make use of so-called Avalanche Photodiodes (APD). Avalanche Photodiodes push
the reverse bias level to several hundred volts at which level a single photo-electron causes a cascade
of additional electrons (an avalanche). This bunch of electrons is collected and gives a device that is
capable of detecting single photons. The disadvantage is that it cannot detect high levels of light, and
in fact this can cause damage.
The photodiode output current is usually converted to a voltage using a trans-impedance amplifier (i.e.
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-9

Figure 11: A simple transimpedance amplifier for a photodiode. The equivalent voltage noise of the
amplifier is also shown

something that converts current into voltage). The simplest of these is a resistor, although one usually
takes the more complex approach shown in Figure 11. For a typical feedback resistor value of 2 kΩ the
output of the photodiode-amplifier combination is of the order of 1 V/mW. As one increases the value
of the feedback resistor it combines with the parasitic capacitance of the photodiode and causes the
response of the overall circuit to slow down. For a 2 kΩ resistor the bandwidth is about 100 kHz to
1 MHz, while for a resistor with a couple of megaohm resistance this falls to 100 Hz or so.

8.5.2 Photomultiplier Tubes

(a) (b)

Figure 12: Two schematic views of photomultipler tubes

For detection of the smallest quantities of light, the most commonly found device is the photomultiplier
tube (PMT). A view of two designs for such a device is shown in Figure 12. Radiation incident on the
photocathode (with energy above the work function) causes the ejection of electrons into the vacuum.
The outgoing electrons are attracted towards the first dynode by the fact that it is held at a positive
voltage with respect to the photocathode. The acceleration of the electrons is sufficient that each collision
with the surface of the first dynode ejects several electrons (perhaps 4-5). These secondary electrons
are then accelerated to the second dynode and so-on through the entire assembly of 4-7 dynodes. Each
dynode is held at a more positive voltage than the previous one and the voltage differences are typically
50-200 V between each of the dynodes. The gain for the entire device is usually around 105 − 107 . The
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-10

PMT can be used in a charge collection mode in which a burst of charge arriving at the final dynode
that is larger than some set threshold causes a counter to trigger. Using this technique a single photon
can easily be detected. This works at rates up to several 10-100 MHz. The PMT can also be used as
an analog intensity measurement device. In this mode one just measures the current on the anode. For
example, if the photon flux at the photocathode is 107 photons per second (i.e. 1 pW or so), and the
quantum efficiency is 10% (typical for a PMT working in the visible domain), the collection efficiency is
90% (i.e. the fraction of electrons that are ejected that are captured by the next dynode - this is normal
number), and a gain of 106 , then this gives rise to a anode current of around 1µA - an easily measurable
quantity. PMTs work best for blue and UV radiation and are not particularly effective for wavelengths
longer than green (532 nm).

8.6 Other Transducers not catalogued above

8.6.1 Displacement Sensors
There are two main types: Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDTs) are beautiful devices that
can detect motion and position with incredible sensitivity and linearity. The second type is a capacitive
position sensor - this device has a smaller dynamic range than the LVDT but has even higher sensitivity.
We wont discuss this second type - if you want to know more there is one in the third year laboratory
Brownian motion experiment. Suffice it to say that the resolution of these devices can be incredible,
while the linear dynamic range is limited to a range equal to a small fraction of the capacitor plate
spacing (which needs to be in the 10s of microns range if it is going to be really sensitive).

8.6.1.1 LVDTs

Figure 13: A schematic of an LVDT

Figure 13 shows the components of a typical LVDT. The transformer’s internal structure consists of
a primary winding centered 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 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 LVDT 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.
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-11

In operation, the LVDT’s primary winding is energized by alternating current of appropriate amplitude
and frequency, known as the primary excitation. The LVDT’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 LVDT coil. Usually this AC output voltage is converted by suitable electronic circuitry to high level
DC voltage or current that is more convenient to use.
As an alternative, to avoid the use of magnetic materials one can place the primary coil on the moving
object with the two secondary fields picking up its driving field. LVDTs have the following advantages:

• Relatively 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.

• Displacement resolution is only 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 LVDT if measurements exceed the designed range

The only obvious disadvantage is the fact that one can only run at speeds up to 1/10 or so of the excitation
frequency. The precision of industrial LVDTs is better than 10−7 − 10−9√ m while in the laboratory it is
possible to construct devices with a noise floor of better than 10−12 m/ Hz. The linear region of the
response of the LVDT is only limited by the length of the coils and this can be up to a few cm in length.

8.6.2 Split and quadrant photodetectors

Figure 14: the left diagram shows the output voltage from two adjacent cells, while the right shows a
circuit for reading out a quadrant PD

Quadrant-cell photoreceivers are ideal when you need to measure small deviations in the position of your
laser beam, such as that required in beam-stabilization systems. Quadrant-cell photoreceivers consist of
four individual yet identical photocells positioned very close to each other (less than 100 µm). The output
from two adjacent cells is shown as the beam is scanned across them in the first part of Figure 14. To
increase the sensitivity of these photoreceivers, each of the cells photocurrents is sent to its own individual
amplifier before being processed with the other photocell signals to generate top-minus bottom difference
(vertical error) and left-minus-right difference (horizontal error) signals. A sum-of-all-quadrants signal is
usually also provided so that it is possible to measure the overall power incident on the photodiode. In
order to normalize the beam position one divides the difference signals by the total signal (see Figure 14).
Lecture 8: Measurement Transducers 8-12

For a typical commercial quadrant photodetector with amplification (a New Focus Model 290X) it is
possible to obtain a noise level of around a few microvolts per root hertz at the output of the amplifier (a
2 kΩ transimpedance amplifier followed by a gain of 10 on the difference amplifier). With a few milliwatt
laser falling on the device we can have of the order of 10V signal changes for a movement of 1 beam
radius. So for a 100 Hz bandwidth measurement, with a 100 µm laser beam diameter, it is possible to
obtain a beam position measurement of the order of 10−11 m.