Transducer

What’s A Transducer?

 

A Transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually, a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another. Transducers are often employed at the boundaries of automation, measurement, and control systems, where electrical signals are converted to and from other physical quantities (energy, force, torque, light, motion, position, etc.). The process of converting one form of energy to another is known as transduction.

 

Transducer Types

 

Transducers that convert physical quantities into mechanical quantities are known as mechanical transducers; transducers that convert physical quantities into electrical quantities are known as electrical transducers. Examples are a thermocouple that changes temperature differences into a small voltage, or a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) used to measure displacement.

 

Sensors and Actuators

 

Transducers can be categorized by which direction information passes through them:

 

• A sensor is a transducer that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus from a physical system. It produces a signal, which represents information about the system, which is used by some type of telemetry, information or control system.
• An actuator is a device that is responsible for moving or controlling a mechanism or system. It is controlled by a signal from a control system or manual control. It is operated by a source of energy, which can be mechanical force, electrical current, hydraulic fluid pressure, or pneumatic pressure, and converts that energy into motion. An actuator is the mechanism by which a control system acts upon an environment. The control system can be simple (a fixed mechanical or electronic system), software-based (e.g. a printer driver, robot control system), a human, or any other input.
• Bidirectional transducers convert physical phenomena to electrical signals and also convert electrical signals into physical phenomena. An example of an inherently bidirectional transducer is an antenna, which can convert radio waves (electromagnetic waves) into an electrical signal to be processed by a radio receiver, or translate an electrical signal from a transmitter into radio waves. Another example is voice coils, which are used in loudspeakers to translate an electrical audio signal into sound and in dynamic microphones to translate sound waves into an audio signal.

 

Active vs. Passive Sensors

There are many surface-mounted and thru-hole sensors (or transducers) can be combined with printed circuit board (PCB) in SMT assembly and thru-hole wave soldering processes to reach the desired functions. 

 

• Active Sensors require an external power source to operate, which is called an excitation signal. The signal is modulated by the sensor to produce an output signal. For example, a thermistor does not generate any electrical signal, but by passing an electric current through it, its resistance can be measured by detecting variations in the current or voltage across the thermistor.
• Passive Sensors, in contrast, generate electric current in response to an external stimulus which serves as the output signal without the need of an additional energy source. Such examples are a photodiode, and a piezoelectric sensor, thermocouple.

 

Many kinds of active and passive sensors can be designed directly onto the circuit boards, like potentiometers, antennas, coils, and etc.

 

Characteristics

 

Some applications that are used to rate transducers:

 

• Dynamic range: This is the ratio between the largest amplitude signal and the smallest amplitude signal the transducer can effectively translate. Transducers with larger dynamic range are more “sensitive” and precise.
• Repeatability: This is the ability of the transducer to produce an identical output when stimulated by the same input.
• Noise: All transducers add some random noise to their output. In electrical transducers this may be electrical noise due to thermal motion of charges in circuits. Noise corrupts small signals more than large ones.
• Hysteresis: This is a property in which the output of the transducer depends not only on its current input but its past input. For example, an actuator which uses a gear train may have some backlash, which means that if the direction of motion of the actuator reverses, there will be a dead zone before the output of the actuator reverses, caused by play between the gear teeth.

 

Transducer Applications

 

Electromagnetic

• Antennae – converts propagating electromagnetic waves to and from conducted electrical signals
• magnetic cartridges – converts relative physical motion to and from electrical signals
• Tape head, disk read-and-write heads – converts magnetic fields on a magnetic medium to and from electrical signals
• Hall effect sensors – converts a magnetic field level into an electrical signal
• Pickup (music technology) – movement of metal strings induces an electrical signal (AC voltage)

 

Electrochemical

• PH probes
• Electro-galvanic oxygen sensors
• Hydrogen sensors

 

Electromechanical (electromechanical output devices are generically called actuators):

• Accelerometers
• Air flow sensors
• Electroactive polymers
• Rotary motors, linear motors
• Galvanometers
• Linear variable differential transformers or rotary variably differential transformers
• Load cells – converts force to mV/V electrical signal using strain gauges
• Microelectromechanical systems
• Potentiometers (when used for measuring position)
• Pressure sensors
• String potentiometers
• Tactile sensors
• Vibration powered generators
• Vibrating structure gyroscopes

 

Electroacoustic

• Loudspeakers, earphones – converts electrical signals into sound (amplified signal → magnetic field → motion → air pressure)
• Microphones – converts sound into an electrical signal (air pressure → motion of conductor/coil → magnetic field → electrical signal)
• Tactile transducers – converts electrical signal into vibration (electrical signal → vibration)
• Piezoelectric crystals – converts deformations of solid-state crystals (vibrations) to and from electrical signals
• Geophones – converts a ground movement (displacement) into voltage (vibrations → motion of conductor/coil → magnetic field → signal)
• Gramophone pickups – (air pressure → motion → magnetic field → electrical signal)
• Hydrophones – converts changes in water pressure into an electrical signal
• Sonar transponders (water pressure → motion of conductor/coil → magnetic field → electrical signal)
• Ultrasonic transceivers, transmitting ultrasound (transduced from electricity) as well as receiving it after sound reflection from target objects, availing for imaging of those objects

 

Electro-optical (Photoelectric)

• Fluorescent lamps – converts electrical power into incoherent light
• Incandescent lamps – converts electrical power into incoherent light
• Light-emitting diodes – converts electrical power into incoherent light
• Laser diodes – converts electrical power into coherent light
• Photodiodes, photoresistors, phototransistors, photomultipliers – converts changing light levels into electrical signals
• Photodetector or photoresistor or light dependent resistor (LDR) – converts changes in light levels into changes in electrical resistance
• Cathode-ray tubes (CRT) – converts electrical signals into visual signals

 

Electrostatic

• Electrometers

 

Thermoelectric

• Resistance temperature detectors (RTD) – converts temperature into an electrical resistance signal
• Thermocouples – converts relative temperatures of metallic junctions to electrical voltage
• Thermistors (includes PTC resistor and NTC resistor)

 

Radio Acoustic

• Geiger-Müller tubes – converts incident ionizing radiation to an electrical impulse signal
• Radio receivers converts electromagnetic transmissions to electrical signals.
• Radio transmitters converts electrical signals to electromagnetic transmissions.