Electronics for Measurement

Circuits, Signals and the Noise Floor in 17 chapters — from “The resistive network: two laws, one equivalent and the loading error” to “Modulation, receivers and the link that carries the measurement”.

Chapters

  1. The resistive network: two laws, one equivalent and the loading error
    • Node, branch and reference node
    • Kirchhoff's current and voltage laws
    • Node-voltage analysis with real sources
    • The Thevenin equivalent
    • Input resistance, output resistance and the loading error
    • Component rating, preferred values and tolerance
    • Summary
    • Problems
  2. Capacitors, inductors and the time constant
    • The capacitor element law and the inductor
    • The RC step response
    • The time constant as a measurement
    • The initial-value and final-value method
    • The RC differentiator and integrator
    • Energy in a capacitor and an inductor
    • Summary
    • Problems
  3. Phasors, impedance and the frequency response
    • The sinusoidal steady state
    • Complex numbers in polar form
    • The phasor as a complex amplitude
    • Complex impedance and loading
    • Root-mean-square and average power
    • The corner frequency of an RC pair
    • The Bode magnitude and phase pair
    • Series resonance and the quality factor
    • Fourier series of a square wave
    • Summary
    • Problems
  4. The bench: probes, cables, grounds and what the instrument shows
    • The oscilloscope input as a circuit
    • Cable capacitance and the compensated divider
    • Instrument bandwidth, meters and generators
    • The cable ladder and characteristic impedance
    • Reflection and termination
    • The ground loop and shielding
    • Summary
    • Problems
  5. The junction: an element whose current is exponential in its voltage
    • The measured diode characteristic
    • The diode equation, fitted and tested
    • The constant-drop model and small-signal resistance
    • Rectification and the reservoir capacitor
    • Clamps, Zener references, photodiodes and light-emitting diodes
    • Summary
    • Problems
  6. Transistors: a current controlled by a third terminal
    • Control of a current by a third terminal
    • The transconductance of a bipolar transistor
    • The quiescent point and bias stability
    • The small-signal model
    • Common-emitter and common-source gain, impedance, clipping and swing
    • The follower, stage bandwidth and the switch
    • Summary
    • Problems
  7. Power supplies: holding a rail steady
    • The unregulated supply under load
    • The series-pass regulator as a feedback loop
    • Dissipation, junction temperature and the heatsink
    • The buck converter as an energy-transfer cycle
    • Decoupling and the local reservoir
    • Summary
    • Problems
  8. The operational amplifier and negative feedback
    • The operational amplifier as a block
    • Negative feedback and the loop gain
    • The two rules of the ideal amplifier
    • Follower, difference, integrator and transimpedance
    • The gain-bandwidth product
    • Offset, bias current and common-mode rejection
    • The same device without feedback
    • Summary
    • Problems
  9. Noise and the signal-to-noise ratio
    • Noise against interference
    • Noise spectral density
    • The noise-equivalent bandwidth
    • Johnson noise
    • Shot noise and 1/f noise
    • Referring every source to one point
    • The signal-to-noise ratio
    • Designing for noise
    • Summary
    • Problems
  10. Active filters, oscillators and timers
    • Why the active filter section needs feedback
    • The second-order response and its damping
    • Designing the Sallen-Key and multiple-feedback sections
    • Choosing a filter for a job
    • Oscillators and the Barkhausen condition
    • The phase-locked loop
    • Summary
    • Problems
  11. Digital logic and its physical realisation
    • Two bands and a forbidden region
    • Binary numbers, Boolean algebra and combinational design
    • The CMOS inverter and where the power goes
    • The clocked flip-flop and the maximum clock rate
    • Counters, registers and interfacing logic to the world
    • Summary
    • Problems
  12. The microcontroller as laboratory hardware
    • The microcontroller as a component
    • The general-purpose pin, the clock and the timebase
    • Determinism, jitter, the interrupt and the response time
    • Serial buses, generating and measuring time
    • When a microcontroller is not fast enough
    • Summary
    • Problems
  13. Sampling, quantisation and the acquisition chain
    • Fourier transform and sampling
    • The sampling theorem and aliasing
    • Specifying the anti-alias filter
    • Quantisation and the effective number of bits
    • Three converter architectures
    • The digital-to-analogue converter and reconstruction
    • The acquisition chain and its error budget
    • Summary
    • Problems
  14. Linear systems, the impulse response and convolution
    • Linearity and time invariance
    • The impulse response and discrete convolution
    • The delta function and the convolution integral
    • Cascaded systems convolve
    • Convolution in time, multiplication in frequency
    • Measuring an impulse response in practice
    • Summary
    • Problems
  15. Transfer functions, poles and the stability of a loop
    • The complex frequency s
    • Poles and zeros
    • Poles in the right half-plane
    • Gain margin and phase margin
    • The sampled system and z
    • A control loop and its steady-state error
    • Summary
    • Problems
  16. Sensors, transducers and the measurement front end
    • The transducer as a specified source
    • The bridge and the common-mode problem
    • The instrumentation amplifier and matching the source
    • Resistive sensors and self-heating
    • The thermocouple and its cold junction
    • Charge, current, capacitive and field sensors
    • Linearisation, calibration and the error budget
    • Summary
    • Problems
  17. Modulation, receivers and the link that carries the measurement
    • Why a signal is moved in frequency
    • Amplitude modulation and its spectrum
    • Frequency modulation and Carson's rule
    • The mixer and frequency translation
    • The superheterodyne receiver and its image
    • What noise does to each modulation
    • Transmission media and their attenuation
    • The link budget
    • Propagation paths and sharing one medium
    • The link as part of the instrument
    • Summary
    • Problems