Objectives: • To understand the underlying principles and performance characteristics of important sensors • To learn how to design the interfacing circuits for these sensors. • To get acquainted with the process of developing and evaluating measurement systems for industrial and scientific applications.

Course Contents:

Sensors: Types and characteristics.

Mechanical and acoustic sensors: metallic, thin-film and semiconductor strain gauges, silicon pressure sensors, accelerometers, displacement transducers, piezo junction devices, piezoelectric field-effect transducers, surface acoustic wave devices, ultrasonic based sensors, flow sensors.

Magnetic and Electric field sensors: Sensors based on variable magnetic coupling, search coil, magnetoresistors, Hall-effect devices, integrated Hall devices, flux-gate sensors, solid-state read and write heads, electrostatic sensors and applications.

Light-sensitive sensors: photovoltaic diodes, photoconductors, photodiodes, phototransistors, positron-sensitive photodetectors, opto-isolators, photodiode arrays, charge-coupled devices, fiber-optic sensor technologies and applications.

Thermal sensors: Platinum resistors, thermistors, silicon transistor thermometers, integrated temperature transducers, thermocouples.

Interface electronics: Noise analysis of interface circuits, electronic circuits designed to interface directly with the sensing elements, linearization, A/D conversion, temperature compensation. Current, frequency, period or pulse-width modulation conversion, microcomputer/microcontroller interfacing.

Sensor systems and applications: integrated sensors-actuators, microsystems, sensor buses, multiple-sensor systems, sensor networks and automotive, consumer, power, medical measurement systems.

 

 

Text Book:

Pallas-Areny Ramon, John G. Webster. Sensors and signal conditioning. New York: Wiley, 2001.

 

       Reference Books:

1.         De Silva, Clarence W. Sensors and actuators: Engineering system instrumentation. CRC Press, 2015.

2.         Ripka, Pavel, Alois Tipek, eds. Modern sensors handbook. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

3.         Khazan, Alexander D. Transducers and their elements: design and application. Prentice Hall, 1994.

4.         Fraden, Jacob. Handbook of modern sensors: physics, designs, and applications. Springer Science & Business Media, 2004.

5.         Tumanski, Slawomir. Handbook of magnetic measurements. CRC Press, 2016.