Physical Measurement Techniques

About the course

The course treats common ways to construct computer based measurement systems. The discussion includes common signal conditioning components such as converters, bridges, instrument and isolation amplifiers, and charge amplifiers, but also data transmission within and between systems, in analog and digital form and by electrical and optical methods. A brief orientation about modulation techniques is included. Simple dynamic properties such as bandwidth, time constant and rise/fall time are treated, and their effect on the measured data is discussed. Dynamic measurement errors are analysed using both the jw method and the Laplace transform. The effects of thermal noise and electrical interference are treated, and ways to couple interference into the measurement circuit are discussed. Some simple ways to reduce the influence of interference, such as filters, phase lock techniques, correlation and averaging are discussed. Some typical transducers for temperature are discussed. Finally, a brief orientation is given about computer software for the collection and analysis of experimental data.