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20.188e 7.99
The Basic of Piezoelectric
Measurement Technology
Rolf H. Kuratle, André Signer
Kistler Instrumente AG Winterthur, Switzerland
Piezoelectric sensors have Piezoelectric sensors for measuring • Monitoring of vibrating machinery
proven to be highly successful force, pressure and vibration are used in • Process monitoring during machining
for the measurement of fast particular applications in industry, where
and cyclic processes. Force, dynamic processes need to be reliably
pressure or acceleration sen- measured over a long period of time. The piezoelectric sensor
sors are used today for quality Measurements are frequently used for
assurance in the widest variety quality assurance and documentation. Piezoelectric sensors consist of a piezo-
of manufacturing processes, The advantage of piezoelectric sensors electric material packaged in a suitable
particularly in production compared with other types of sensors are: housing. The term «piezoelectric» signi-
plants for the automobile and • Long life without aging fies that when loaded with a force, the
electronics industries. Appro- • High sensitivity sensor produces an electric charge Q
priate process knowledge • Low threshold strictly proportional to the force F with the
combined with a suitable mea- • Large measuring range unit [pC] (1 Picocoulomb = 10-12 Coulomb).
suring system allow zero • Practically displacement-free mea- It is therefore an active measuring
defect production. surement element. With quartz (silicon dioxide
The following paper discusses • High natural frequency SiO2) nature has provided an ideal
a little known piezoelectric • Wide temperature range material. Nowadays, quartz is syntheti-
measuring technique, and Some examples for the use of piezo- cally grown under large pressure and
shows recent innovations and electric sensors in industry are: high temperature. Other piezoelectric
developments. • Measurement of mold cavity pres- materials are also used for special
sure for injection molding of plastics applications.
• Cylinder pressure monitoring on Different effects are achieved depending
diesel and gas engines to the alignment of the quartz elements
• Press force monitoring and control in the sensor package (Fig 1). These can
• Monitoring joining forces on auto- be produced by different cutting angles.
matic assembly machines
Piezoelectricity
disks
a) b) c)
Typical sensors applying the longitudinal In principle, the charge amplifier consists RG Resistance for time constant
effect are force load washers. of a high-gain voltage amplifier with a (lower cut-off frequency)
MOS or J-FET transistor at the input to RTP Resistance of the low-pass input
achieve the high insulation resistance. It filter
c) Shear effect is connected in negative feedback via a vi Gain factor of the operational
high-insulation range capacitor and thus amplifier (approx. 100,000)
With shear force, the charge output acts as an integrator for input currents Uin Voltage at the amplifier input
occurs at the force contact surfaces. The flowing through the charge input. These Uout Voltage at the amplifier output
sensitivity amounts to are generated by changes in charge Reset Switch for short-circuiting the
pC (or mechanical load changes) at the range capacitor (zeroing the
Q = – 4, 6 ⋅F sensor. The integral of the change in amplifier)
N
charge from the piezoelectric sensor and
As with the longitudinal effect, the geo- thus a voltage signal proportional to the As a result of the large gain of the ope-
metry of the quartz does not affect its entire change in charge (or mechanical rational amplifier (ideally ν → ∞), the
sensitivity. Typical sensors with shear load change) appears at the output. capacitances of the sensor and the cable
effect are 3-component force sensors, are practically negligible, and the output
moment sensors and accelerometers. voltage is purely proportional to the
quotient of charge and range capaci- of taring is desirable so that, for example, These disturbances can be excluded
tance: the intrinsic weight of machine parts is through the use of a suitable low-pass
not included in the force measurement. input filter. For most applications, filters
Q Normally a reset function will be carried covering the range 10 ... 100 Hz have
Uout ≈
CB out before every measuring cycle with proven most successful and take the
Charge amplifiers must be highly insu- the sensor mechanically unloaded. The form of an RC network at the amplifier
lating on the input side (Ri of the order of reset time is short at approx. 5 ... 100 ms input. If the cable and sensor capaci-
magnitude of 1014 Ohm) – the same goes and is thus suitable for short cyclic tance is used for C, then a low pass filter
for the sensor and the cable including measuring or monitoring applications. is produced with an additional integral
plug connections – since every finite re- Depending on the charge amplifier resistor RTP in series with the cable.
sistance will cause a current [pC/s = pA] design, the reset switch is operated
to flow allowing the output signal to drift. either manually or via an external digital 1
input signal. Semiconductor switches or fTiefpass =
TP ·(C
2 ⋅ π ⋅RTP ⋅ (C
SS + KC)K)
+C
Drift reed relays are used as high insulation
reset switches. They are normally closed
As already mentioned, the high insula-
when no current is flowing to prevent Time constants (high pass filters)
tion at the amplifier input is achieved with
damage to the high insulation input from
a MOSFET. The best MOSFETs current-
static charges. A time constant acts like an AC coupling
ly available have an input leakage
device, similar to that familiar from os-
current of the order of magnitude of
cilloscopes. The static signal component
several fA. For good charge amplifiers,
Measuring ranges is filtered out and only the dynamic signal
this means a typical drift of ±0.03 pC/s.
oscillates about zero according to the
The small leakage current of the input
Most charge amplifiers have multiple waveform. Time constants are produced
stage is responsible for the fact that no
measuring ranges. The choice of mea- with a resistor RG in parallel with the
purely static measurements can be
suring range is made by switching the range capacitor. The insulation resis-
made over a long period of time with
relevant range capacitors CB. Subse- tance is artificially reduced. This is of
piezoelectric systems.
quent amplifier stages provide a scaled course only appropriate for rapid mea-
The percentage drift of the measuring
10 V output voltage signal, thus allowing suring processes.
signal per minute is calculated from:
the use of a single charge amplifier for
sensors with the widest selection of In the AC mode, the charge amplifier
0, 03 pC ⋅ 60 sec ⋅100 % sensitivities and measuring ranges. behaves like a high pass filter. The low-
Drift [% / Min] =
E ⋅F The accuracy of the charge amplifier is er cut-off frequency is calculated from
mainly determined by the tolerance of the value of the range capacitor in the
the range capacitors CB. The linearity of circuit and the time constant resistance
Sensitivity of the sensor [E] = pC/N
±0.05 % FS is excellent. The charge as follows:
Force to be measured in [F] = N
amplifier error is thus negligible in its
effect on the calibration of the entire
measuring chain or when tuning the
1 1
The limit for the quasistatic measure- fu = =
amplifier to the sensor involved. 2 ⋅ π ·R
⋅RGG ·C
⋅CBB 2 ⋅ π ⋅ τ
ment of piezoelectric signals is easily
determined by means of a practical Within specific limits, charge amplifiers
example with a quartz force sensor are overload-proof. The determining
(sensitivity 4 pC/N). With a measuring overload parameters are the signal slew Lower cut-off frequency [fu] = Hz
range of 1000 N, there is a measuring rate and the magnitude of the charge. Time constant [t] = s
error of 0.045 % per minute or a J-FET amplifiers are more insensitive to
measuring time of 22 minutes without the static discharge in the event of improper
measuring error exceeding 1 %. This drift connection of the sensor as a MOS-FET Time constants are included in the
is independent of the range capacitor amplifier, but have a considerably larger charge amplifier only when the dynamic
selected. Nevertheless, the higher the drift and temperature dependence. signal component is of interest in rapid
sensitivity of the sensor and the greater processes. A reset before each cycle is
the force to be measured, the smaller in the many cases unnecessary for
Low-pass input filter measurements with time constants.
the error component due to drift.
External actuation
Control monitors
Literature