DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A DATA ACQUISITION FOR MEASUREMENT OF LOW LEVEL AND LOW FREQUENCY ELECTRIC FIELDS

Abstract:

Project work involves the measurement of the low level electric potential from the two sensor electrodes placed at a distance of 0.5mts. It is proposed to configure the circuit with an instrumentation amplifier, filter, analog to digital converter and a microcontroller and develop a bread board model. The data will be acquired for electric fields by varying the frequency and field strength. The output of the data will be analyzed for the adequacy of the design towards detecting low level signals.

Electric fields in sea-an overview:

An electric field is the voltage gradient along a defined direction in a given medium, usually expressed as volts/meter. In sea, electric fields are caused by electric current flowing thro the water, giving the voltage gradient as a result of the electric resistivity of the water. Typical electric fields range in size from fraction of nanovolts/meter to millivolts/meter. Electric fields are emitted from ships, submarines Any other metallic objects in sea. There are also naturally occurring electric fields caused by water movement and geomagnetic activity.

Corrosion and different methods to protect from corrosion :

An electric field can be generated when certain metals immersed in sea water as a result of electro chemical reaction between the metal and ionic species in the water. The basic model for the consideration of the problem is the corrosion cell which consists of, the anode, cathode and the electrolyte as shown schematically in the following figure:

Direction of conventional current

E Electrolyte

All the three items must be present for electrochemical reaction to take place. At anode, the mostly likely reaction to occur is the dissolution of metal into metal ions, and this is termed as the anodic reaction. This is an oxidation process and is often thought of as the metal returning to its native state. Other reactions can take place at the anode, but are generally of the less significance. To balance the anodic reaction, and use the electrons released at the anode, chemical reactions will occur at the cathode. There are a number of possible cathodic reactions, but the most common in sea water environment is the reduction of oxygen to hydroxide ions.

This implies therefore that electrons generated at the anode will flow through a connection to cathode, and also implies that the electrons will continue their circuit back to anode through the electrolyte. By convention electric current flows from the anode, through the electrolyte to the cathode, completing the circuit through the cathode-anode connection. Since the electrolyte will have resistance, then by ohms law a potential gradient will exit in the electrolyte. Because one of the possible cathode reactions is the reduction of the oxygen, it follows that even on an otherwise homogeneous material, if there is some part of the material which has restricted access for that oxygen in the solution in then that area can become less cathodic. This means that local currents can be generated, which in case of steel, would lead to localized rusting usually evident as pitting corrosion. A steel hulled vessel, in sea water may be considered as a large floating corrosion cell, albeit complex in nature because of the presence of many dissimilar metals. As an aid to protection against corrosion most modern ships are painted, and this helps to reduce the magnitude of the problem. However, once the vessel is in commission, there are real possibilities of harming the paint film, and once the coating is breached, the corrosion process may begin. To militate against the corrosion it is normal practice to install a cathodic protection system on ship. The cathodic protection system deliberately produces currents in the electrolyte to act against the normally occurring anode currents. Two main types of cathodic protection are used, sacrificial anode and immressed current systems. For the sacrificial anode form of cathodic protection, a material which is most electronegative than the ships steel hull is chosen as the anode. This dissolves in preference to steel, and there by protects it. The anode is generally placed at a large number of strategic points around the hull, and because they are always active, there is no maintenance associated with them. The following figure shows that the current will flow to both the anode and cathode.

S A C A C
SAC:
Material more electronegat ive than than native anode/catho de material

Currents flowing to the cathode increase the effectiveness of the cathode area. It will enable these areas to produce larger quantities of hydroxide ions, making the surface more alkaline. It is known that as the pH on the surface increase, metal is to more alkaline conditions, the steel enters into a passive non-coordinate state, which is of obvious benefit to the process of cathodic protection. A second phenomenon which occurs as a result of high pH is the buildup of calcareous deposits. Rather like paint, these deposits act to insulate the surface from the electrolyte, thus prevent the corrosion process taking place. However, they are pH dependent and with movement of the vessel it can be quite difficult to maintain a sufficiently alkaline condition for the calcareous deposit to spread far from area immediately surrounding the anode. The operating principle of an immersed current system, to be deliberately introduce a current into the electrolyte from the electrode in the opposite direction to the natural anode current, thus suppressing the electrochemical reaction and preventing corrosion. Because of the direction of anode, this electrode is called immersed current anode , and is generally of a material which will not dissolve at any great rate, whilst protecting the hull vessels hull. There are generally a small number of anodes situated at critical points of the vessels hull. The power unit which supplies current to the anodes is generally controlled by monitoring reference electrode in order to limit the impressed current in a vessel which will sufficiently depress the hulls natural potential so as to prevent free corrosion, but not sufficiently high to cause damage to any paint film, or to alter the chemical structure of the steel.

Sources of electric fields and approximate magnitudes:

Electric fields sources of interest cover a wide range of magnitudes and frequencies. There are static electric fields often referred to as UEP or SE fields and alternating electric fields or AE fields. Under water electric potential (UEP) is a unfortunate misnomer but it seems to have become accepted terminology. Electric potential is the voltage of a point referred to another usually infinitely distant point. It is the electric field gradient or just electric fields which is measured in practical systems ie., the difference between two closely spaced points. Electric field emissions from ships and submarines have similar sources, but with different magnitudes and frequencies. The emitted electric fields are of great interest, as they may be used to detect and characterize a ship or submarine. Static electric fields or SE: These fields are caused by the sum of the all static dipole sources on ship or submarine. The dc current flowing through the seawater, difference between parts of a vessel give raise to electric fields. The largest sources of the dc electric current flow are the cathodic protection anodes, whether of sacrificial or immersed current type. Many tens of the amperes of the electric current flow between these and the propeller as well as the currents flowing to other parts of the hull. The resultant static emitted electric fields look like a single dipole when measured at a distance. The emitted signal strength is measured in ampere meters and the product of the effective total current multiplied by effective dipole length. The static electric emission may be measured as the DC field if the ship and the sensor are stationary or may appear as a varying field when the ship moves past a static sensor. The frequency range

of the SE fields is generally specified as the few milliHz to few Hzs which really encompasses some of the AE frequency band. Static electric fields propagate a very long distances and are detectable over useful distance with the latest generation of high sensitivity sensor, especially in costal water depths.

Electric field sensor and sensitivities:

A simple electric field sensor consists of two electrical contact points, in sea connected to a measuring device. The key to making a successful low noise sensor is in the design of contact points or electrodes as they are called must not generate random voltages themselves, when they are in contact with the sea. This means that if two electrodes are placed in a non metallic container of the sea, where there is no electric fields, they must not show a measureable voltage difference voltage difference voltmeter or other measurable devices. All types of sensing electrodes will give a randomly varying electric signal in zero field and this is called sensor electrode noise. SILVER/SILVER CHLORIDE electrodes are used as a sensors which have self noise levels in the nanovolt or sub nanovolt region.

NOISE IN SENSORS AND ITS UNITS:

Noise can be expressed as the power available in unit band width or more usually as the RMS voltage in square root of the unit bandwidth. Eg: nv/Hz. The reason for this strange unit is that noise is bandwidth dependent. This choice of unit allows different amplifier and sensor systems to be compared. The noise level is expressed at a given frequency particularly at 1Hz and below.

SENSORS & SENSITIVITIES:

The sensitivity of a sensor is given by the electrode total noise in nanovolts/root hertz, divided by the electrode spacing in meters. To this is added the amplifier noise. The total sensitivity is then expressed in nv/m/Hz

Instrumentation amplifier:
An instrumentation amplifier (IA) has two inputs and one output. It is distinguished from an operational amplifier by its finite gain (which is usually no more than 100) and the availability of both inputs for connecting to the signal sources. The latter feature means that all necessary feedback components are connected to other parts of the instrumentation amplifier, rather than to its noninverting and inverting inputs. The main function of the IA is to produce an output signal which is proportional to the difference in voltages between its two inputs:

, Vout =A(V+ V)=AV

where V+ and V are the input voltages at noninverting and inverting inputs, respectively, and A is the gain. An instrumentation amplifier can be either built from an OPAM, in a monolithic or hybrid form. It is important to assure high input resistances for both inputs, so that the amplifier can be used in a true differential form. A differential input of the amplifier is very important for rejection of common-mode interferences having an additive nature. An example of a high-quality monolithic instrumentation amplifier is INA118 from Burr-

Brown/Texas Instruments (www.ti.com). It offers a low offset voltage of 50 V and a high common -mode rejection ratio (110 dB). The gain is programmed by a single resistor.

Instrumentation amplifier with three operational amplifiers and matched resistors.

Although several monolithic instrumentation amplifiers are presently available, quite often discrete component circuits prove to be more cost-effective. Basic circuit of an IA is shown in above fig. The voltage across Ra is forced to become equal to the input voltage difference V . This sets the current through that resistor equal to i =V/Ra. The output voltages from the U1 and U2 OPAMs are equal to one another in amplitudes and opposite in the phases. Hence, the front stage (U1 and U2) has a differential input and a differential output configuration. The second stage (U3) converts the differential output into a unipolar output and provides an additional gain. The overall gain of the IA is

The common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) depends on matching of resistors within the corresponding group (R, R2, and R3). As a rule of thumb, 1% resistors yield CMRRs no better than 100, whereas for 0.1%, the CMRR is no better than 1000. A good and cost-effective instrumentation amplifier can be built of two identical operational amplifiers and several precision resistors (below figure). The circuit uses the FET-input OPAMs to

1+

provide lower noise and lower input bias currents. U1 acts as a noninverting amplifier and U2 is the inverting one. Each input has a high impedance and can be directly interfaced with a sensor. A feedback from each amplifier forces voltage across the gain-setting resistor Ra to become equal to V . The gain of the amplifier is equal to

Hence, gain may vary from 2 (Ra is omitted) to a potentially open-loop gain (Ra =0). With the components whose values are shown in below figure, the gain is A=100. It should be remembered, however, that the input offset voltage will be amplified with the same gain. The CMRR primarily depends on matching values of resistors R. At very low frequencies, it is the reciprocal of the net fractional resistor mismatch, [i.e., CMRR=10,000 (80 dB) for a 0.01% mismatch]. At higher frequencies, the impedance mismatch must be considered, rather than the resistor mismatch. To balance the impedances, a trimpot and a capacitor C1 may be used. Also, remember that IA as a rule requires a dual (plus and minus) power supply. When cost is a really limiting factor and no high-quality dc characteristics are required, a very simple IA can be designed with just one operational amplifier and two resistors (Fig. B). The feedback resistor Ra is connected to the null-balance terminal of the OPAM, which is the output of the front stage of the monolithic circuit. The amount of the feedback through Ra depends on the actual circuit of an OPAM and somewhat varies from part to part. For the TLC271 operational amplifier (Texas Instruments), a gain of the circuit may be found from

2(1 +

1+(

(A) Instrumentation amplifier with two operational amplifiers; (B) low-cost instrumentation amplifier with one operational amplifier

which for values indicated in Fig. B gives a gain of about 50. The connections and values of the external components are different for different types of the operational amplifier. In addition, not all OPAMs can be used in such an unusual circuit. The important instrumentation amplifier is INA103which is having low noise and low distortion. The detailed study of this amplifier is as below. INA 103

FEATURES:
1. LOW NOISE: 1nV/Hz 2. LOW THD+N: 0.0009% at 1kHz, G = 100 3. HIGH GBW: 100MHz at G = 1000 4. WIDE SUPPLY RANGE: 9V to 25V 5. HIGH CMRR: >100dB 6. BUILT-IN GAIN SETTING RESISTORS: G = 1, 100 7. UPGRADES AD625

Description:
The INA103 is a very low noise, low distortion monolithic instrumentation amplifier. Its current feedback circuitry achieves very wide bandwidth and excellent dynamic response. It is ideal for low-level audio signals such as balanced low-impedance microphones. The INA103 provides near-theoretical limit noise performance for 200W source impedances. Many industrial applications also benefit from its low noise and wide bandwidth. Unique distortion cancellation circuitry reduces distortion to extremely low levels, even in high gain. Its balanced input, low noise and low distortion provide superior performance compared to transformercoupled microphone amplifiers used in professional audio equipment. The INA103s wide supply voltage (9 to 25V) and high output current drive allow its use in high-level audio stages as well. A copper lead frame in the plastic DIP assures excellent thermal performance. The INA103 is available in 16-pin plastic DIP and SOL-16 surface-mount packages. Commercial and Industrial temperature range models are available.

The pin configuration of this amplifier is as follows:

ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE SENSITIVITY

Any integrated circuit can be damaged by ESD. Burr-Brown recommends that all integrated circuits be handled with appropriate precautions. Failure to observe proper handling and installation procedures can cause damage. ESD damage can range from subtle performance degradation to complete device failure. Precision integrated circuits may be more susceptible to damage because very small parametric changes could cause the device not to meet published specifications.

APPLICATIONS INFORMATION
Figure 1 shows the basic connections required for operation. Power supplies should be bypassed with 1F tantalum capacitors near the device pins. The output Sense (pin 11) and output Reference (pin 7) should be low impedance connections. Resistance of a few ohms in series with these connections will degrade the commonmode rejection of the amplifier. To avoid oscillations, make short, direct connection to the gain set resistor and gain sense connections. Avoid running output signals near these sensitive input nodes.

INPUT CONSIDERATIONS
Certain source impedances can cause the INA103 to oscillate. This depends on circuit layout and source or cable characteristics connected to the input. An input network consisting of a small inductor and resistor (Figure 2) can greatly reduce the tendancy to oscillate. This is especially useful if various input sources are connected to the INA103. Although not shown in other figures, this network can be used, if needed, with all applications shown.

GAIN SELECTION
Gains of 1 or 100V/V can be set without external resistors. For G = 1V/V (unity gain) leave pin 14 open (no connection) see Figure 4. For G = 100V/V, connect pin 14 to pin 6see Figure 5. Gain can also be accurately set with a single external resistor as shown in Figure 1. The two internal feedback resistors are laser-trimmed to 3kW within approximately 0.1%. The temperature coefficient of these resistors is approximately 50ppm/C. Gain using an external RG resistor is

=1+(

Accuracy and TCR of the external RG will also contribute to gain error and temperature drift. These effects can be directly inferred from the gain equation. Connections available on A1 and A2 allow external resistors to be substituted for the internal 3kW feedback resistors. A precision resistor network can be used for very accurate and stable gains. To preserve the low noise of the INA103, the value of external feedback resistors should be kept low. Increasing the feedback resistors to 20kW would increase noise of the INA103 to approximately 1.5nV/Hz. Due to the current-feedback input circuitry, bandwidth would also be reduced.

NOISE PERFORMANCE:

The INA103 provides very low noise with low source impedance. Its 1nV/Hz voltage noise delivers near theoretical noise performance with a source impedance of 200W. Relatively high input stage current is used to achieve this low noise. This results in relatively high input bias current and input current noise. As a result, the INA103 may not provide best noise performance with source impedances greater than 10kW. For source impedance greater than 10kW, consider the INA114 (excellent for precise DC applications), or the INA111 FET-input IA for high speed applications.
OFFSET ADJUSTMENT:

Offset voltage of the INA103 has two components: input stage offset voltage is produced by A1 and A2; and, output stage offset is produced by A3. Both input and output stage offset are laser trimmed and may not need adjustment in many applications.

Offset voltage can be trimmed with the optional circuit shown in Figure 3. This offset trim circuit primarily adjusts the output stage offset, but also has a small effect on input stage offset. For a 1mV adjustment of the output voltage, the input stage offset is adjusted approximately 1V. Use this adjustment to null the INA103s offset voltage with zero differential input voltage. Do not use this adjustment to null offset produced by a sensor, or offset produced by subsequent stages, since this will

increase temperature drift. To offset the output voltage without affecting drift, use the circuit shown in Figure 4. The voltage applied to pin 7 is summed at the output. The op amp connected as a buffer provides a low impedance at pin 7 to assure good commonmode rejection. Figure 5 shows a method to trim offset voltage in ACcoupled applications. A nearly constant and equal input bias current of approximately 2.5A flows into both input terminals. A variable input trim voltage is created by adjusting the balance of the two input bias return resistances through which the input bias currents must flow.

Figure shows an active control loop that adjusts the output offset voltage to zero. A2, R, and C form an integrator that produces an offsetting voltage applied to one input of the INA103. This produces a 6dB/octave low frequency rolloff like the capacitor input coupling

COMMON-MODE INPUT RANGE

For proper operation, the combined differential input signal and common-mode input voltage must not cause the input amplifiers to exceed their output swing limits.
OUTPUT SENSE

An output sense terminal allows greater gain accuracy in driving the load. By connecting the sense connection at the load, IR voltage loss to the load is included inside the feedback loop. Current drive can be increased by connecting a current booster inside the feedback loop .

APPLICATIONS
1 HIGH QUALITY MICROPHONE PREAMPS (REPLACES TRANSFORMERS) 2 MOVING-COIL PREAMPLIFIERS 3 DIFFERENTIAL RECEIVERS 4 AMPLIFICATION OF SIGNALS FROM: Strain Gages (Weigh Scale Applications) Thermocouples Bridge Transducers.

The other type of instrumentation amplifier is AD620:

EASY TO USE
Gain Set with One External Resistor (Gain Range 1 to 1000) Wide Power Supply Range (62.3 V to 618 V) Higher Performance than Three Op Amp IA Designs Available in 8-Lead DIP and SOIC Packaging Low Power, 1.3 mA max Supply Current EXCELLENT DC PERFORMANCE (B GRADE) 50 mV max, Input Offset Voltage 0.6 mV/8C max, Input Offset Drift 1.0 nA max, Input Bias Current 100 dB min Common-Mode Rejection Ratio (G = 10) LOW NOISE 9 nV/Hz, @ 1 kHz, Input Voltage Noise 0.28 mV p-p Noise (0.1 Hz to 10 Hz) EXCELLENT AC SPECIFICATIONS 120 kHz Bandwidth (G = 100) 15 ms Settling Time to 0.01% APPLICATIONS Weigh Scales ECG and Medical Instrumentation

Transducer Interface Data Acquisition Systems Industrial Process Controls Battery Powered and Portable Equipment

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The AD620 is a low cost, high accuracy instrumentation amplifier that requires only one external resistor to set gains of 1 to 1000. Furthermore, the AD620 features 8-lead SOIC and DIP packaging that is smaller than discrete designs, and offers lower power (only 1.3 mA max supply current), making it a good fit for battery powered, portable (or remote) applications. The AD620, with its high accuracy of 40 ppm maximum nonlinearity, low offset voltage of 50 V max and offset drift of 0.6 V/C max, is ideal for use in precision data acquisition systems, such as weigh scales and transducer interfaces. Furthermore, the low noise, low input bias current and low power of the AD620 make it well suited for medical applications such as ECG and noninvasive blood pressure monitors. The low input bias current of 1.0 nA max is made possible with the use of Super beta processing in the input stage. The AD620 works well as a preamplifier due to its low input voltage noise of 9 nV/Hz at 1 kHz, 0.28 V p-p in the 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz band, 0.1 pA/Hz input current noises. Also, the AD620 is well suited for multiplexed applications with its settling time of 15 s to0.01% and its cost is low enough to enable designs with one in amp per channel.

Pin diagram:

ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM RATINGS1

Supply Voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 V Internal Power Dissipation2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650 mW Input Voltage (Common Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VS Differential Input Voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 V Output Short Circuit Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Indefinite Storage Temperature Range (Q) . . . . . . . . . . 65C to +150C Storage Temperature Range (N, R) . . . . . . . . 65C to +125C

Operating Temperature Range AD620 (A, B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40C to +85C AD620 (S) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55C to +125C Lead Temperature Range (Soldering 10 seconds) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +300C

THEORY OF OPERATION
The AD620 is a monolithic instrumentation amplifier based on a modification of the classic three op amp approach. Absolute value trimming allows the user to program gain accurately (to 0.15% at G = 100) with only one resistor. Monolithic construction and laser wafer trimming allow the tight matching and tracking of circuit components, thus ensuring the high level of performance inherent in this circuit. The input transistors Q1 and Q2 provide a single differential pair bipolar input for high precision , yet offer 10x lower Input Bias Current thanks to Super beta processing. Feedback through the Q1-A1-R1 loop and the Q2-A2-R2 loop maintains constant collector current of the input devices Q1, Q2 thereby impressing the input voltage across the external gain setting resistor RG. This creates a differential gain from the inputs to the A1/A2 outputs given by G = (R1 + R2)/RG + 1. The unity-gain subtracter A3 removes any commonmode signal, yielding a single-ended output referred to the REF pin potential. The value of RG also determines the transconductance of the preamp stage. As RG is reduced for larger gains, the transconductance increases asymptotically to that of the input transistors. This has three important advantages: (a) Open-loop gain is boosted for increasing programmed gain, thus reducing gain related errors. (b) The gain-bandwidth product (determined by C1, C2 and the preamp transconductance) increases with programmed gain, thus optimizing frequency response. (c) The input voltage noise is reduced to a value of 9 nV/Hz, determined mainly by the collector current and base resistance of the input devices. The internal gain resistors, R1 and R2, are trimmed to an absolute value of 24.7 kW, allowing the gain to be programmed accurately with a single external resistor.

The gain equation is :

Different applications of AD620:

Pressure Measurement

49.4

+1

Although useful in many bridge applications such as weigh scales, the AD620 is especially suitable for higher resistance pressure sensors powered at lower voltages where small size and low power become more significant. Below Figure shows a 3 kW pressure transducer bridge powered from +5 V. In such a circuit, the bridge consumes only 1.7 mA. Adding the AD620 and a buffered voltage divider allows the signal to be conditioned for only 3.8 mA of total supply current. Small size and low cost make the AD620 especially attractive for voltage output pressure transducers. Since it delivers low noise and drift, it will also serve applications such as diagnostic noninvasive blood pressure measurement

Medical ECG
The low current noise of the AD620 allows its use in ECG monitors where high source resistances of 1 MW or higher are not uncommon. The AD620s low power, low supply voltage requirements, and space-saving 8-lead mini-DIP and SOIC package offerings make it an excellent choice for battery powered data recorders. Furthermore, the low bias currents and low current noise coupled with the low voltage noise of the AD620 improve the dynamic range for better performance. The value of capacitor C1 is chosen to maintain stability of the right leg drive loop. Proper safeguards, such as isolation, must be added to this circuit to protect the patient from possible harm.

Analog to digital converters:

Sigma delta conversion: