传感器的设计制作 - VOICE OF STEVE

MSN:Steve.ye@carlogavazzi.cn; Email:Steveyts@126.
com Voice of 叶铁锁
Designing and Building an

Eddy Current Position Sensor
The experience essential to successfully designing eddy current sunsors can be readily acquired
because printed circuit sensors are easily and cheaply prototyped and only basic electronic
instruments are needed for testing.
Eddy current sensors are widely used for

noncontact position, displacement, and
proximity measurement. Operating on the
principle of magnetic induction, these
detectors can precisely measure the
position of a metallic target, even
through intervening nonmetallic materials
such as plastics, opaque fluids, and dirt Photo 1. In the radial and thrust magnetic bearings
shown here, three differential eddy current probes
[1]. The sensors are inherently rugged from Kaman Instrumentation Corp. (Colorado
Springs, Colorado) monitor X,Y, and Z motion to a
and can operate over wide temperature precision of <0.0001 in. The visible components are
(from left) motor jack shaft; flexible coupling (black);
ranges in contaminated environments that left thrust housing and stator; thrust disc with shims
would defeat optical, acoustic, and even for setup; right thrust housing, stator, and thrust
probes; radial eddy current probe assembly; radial
capacitive devices. One of the more magnetic bearing housing and stator; auxiliary
bushing assembly; and pump drive shaft. (Photo by
exotic applications of eddy current George Gillies, courtesy of ROMAC).
sensors is that of supplying position

feedback in magnetic bearings (see Photo 1 and sidebar). In a magnetic
bearing assembly, a rotating shaft is suspended in a magnetic field to
achieve wear-free and nearly frictionless rotation. For bearing
stability, eddy current sensors are frequently used to provide position
feedback to the magnet controller.
Practical eddy current sensors vary in diameter from a few millimeters to

a meter and have maximum sensing ranges roughly equal to the radius of
the coil. Linearity is typically 1% of the sensing range and noise levels
of 1 ppmrms/ Hz are common. Temperature drift ranges from ~100 ppm/°C to
1000 ppm/°C. A small sensor can resolve nanometer-size displacements and
measure a 1 mm span to 10 microns total accuracy. Bandwidths of 50 kHz
are readily achieved.
Steve Ye
MSN:Steve.ye@carlogavazzi.cn; Email:Steveyts@126.com Voice of 叶铁锁
Physics and Behavior

An eddy current displacement sensor
consists of four components (see Figure
1): the sensor coil, the target, the
sensor drive electronics, and a signal
processing block, which can be a
Figure 1. An AC current in the sensor coil generates an
oscillating magnetic field, which induces eddy currents circuit or a microprocessor algorithm.
in the surface of the target. The coil impedance changes
with standoff and is converted to a linear output by the
When the sensor coil is driven by an AC
sensor and signal processing electronics.
current, it generates an oscillating

magnetic field that induces eddy currents in any nearby metallic object,
designated the target. The eddy currents circulate in a direction
opposite
that of the coil, reducing the magnetic flux in

the coil and thereby its inductance. The eddy
currents also dissipate energy, increasing the
coil's resistance. As shown in Figure 2(A), the
coil and the target constitute the primary and
(shorted) secondary of a weakly coupled air-core
transformer. Movement of the target changes the
coupling, and this movement is reflected as an
impedance change at the terminals of the coil.
The air-core transformer model is physically

accurate, but for purposes of circuit design, a
lossy inductor is simpler and more useful. In Figure 2. An eddy current sensor can
be modeled as a transformer (A) with a
Figure 2(B), the complex impedance of the sensor coupling coefficient that depends on
standoff. The model can be simplified to
coil is represented a series LR circuit. Both an inductor and resistor (B) that both
depend on standoff, x.
inductance, L, and resistance, R, change with
target position, or standoff. As the target approaches the coil, the
inductance goes down and the resistance usually goes up. The inductance
changes by as much as a factor of five, providing the physical basis for
sensing the target position.
The inductance and resistance are important characteristics of the sensor

because they correspond directly to physical mechanisms and can be used
directly in circuit design and simulation. However, the quality factor,
Q, is more directly connected to the ultimate performance of the sensor.
Q is defined as:
(1)
Steve Ye
where:
= operating frequency of the sensor in radians per second
Q depends on the standoff, x, because both L and R are functions of

displacement. The higher the value of Q, the more purely reactive the
sensor. High Q leads to high accuracy and stability. The specific value
of L is of secondary
importance since it is constrained only

by the need for a manufacturable coil
and a practical circuit design that
burns a reasonable amount of energy at
a reasonable frequency. The specific
value of R is of even less interest
because R is an undesirable parasitic
effect in the first place.
Figure 3. Measurements on a 38 mm dia. PC sensor at
1 MHz show how inductance, resistance, and Q are
Figure 3 shows how L, R, and Q depend affected by target displacement. The inductance
changes rapidly when the target is close but the
on target standoff. The data come from response decays significantly at one coil radius.
real measurements on a 38 mm dia., air-
core PC sensor with an aluminum target. The measurements were made on
Hewlett-Packard's HP4285A LCR meter at 1 MHz. Note that the displacement
has been normalized to the sensor radius (19 mm) so that the graph
qualitatively depicts the behavior of sensors of all sizes. As standoff
increases, the inductance increases by a factor of four, the resistance
decreases slightly, and as a consequence the Q increases. The change in
all three parameters is highly nonlinear and each curve tends to decay
roughly exponentially as standoff increases. The rapid loss of
sensitivity with distance strictly limits the range of an eddy current
sensor to ~1/2 the coil diameter and constitutes the most important
limitation of this type of sensing.
Steve Ye
The coil's impedance is also affected

by:
• Target size, flatness, and

thickness
• Target material properties,
especially conductivity and
magnetic permeability
• Temperature of the target and the
coil
• Coil geometry and DC resistance
• Operating frequency
Figure 4 shows the effect of target

material for an aluminum and a
stainless steel target. The steel
target has 1/28 the conductivity of
aluminum, resulting in higher eddy
current losses and higher resistance,
especially at close spacing. The target
conductivity scarcely affects the
inductance. Neither resistance nor Figure 4. Target conductivity affects the response of the
38 mm PC sensor (A). A stainless steel target produces
inductance depends strongly on the much higher eddy current losses and higher resistance
when the standoff, x, is small. The inductance is much
target at large sensing distances where less sensitive to conductivity In (B), the Q values of
aluminum and stainless steel are plotted against
the coil interacts only weakly with the standoff, x.
target.
Figure 5 shows the sensor's response

to frequency. First note the resonant
behavior at 7 MHz, which is caused by the
cable and interwinding capacitance. The
frequency where the inductance peaks is
called the self-resonant frequency (SRF),
and the sensor must be operated below it
to look like an inductor at all. We want
to operate the sensor at high frequency
Figure 5. The frequency dependence of the 38 mm to maximize Q, but the frequency must
PC sensor shows that the Q increases with
frequency until the coil becomes self-resonant. With remain at least a factor of three below
this graph we can find an operating frequency that
maximizes Q while staying well below self-
the SRF. Since these are opposing
resonance. requirements, the choice of operating
frequency is clearly an opportunity for
mization. Practical frequency values for air core coils typically lie
een 100 kHz and 10 MHz.
Steve Ye
Temperature drift proves to be the critical source of error in eddy

current sensors and arises from a complex set of factors. Both the
inductance and resistance have positive temperature coefficients that are
dependent on frequency. For the 38 mm PC coil operating at 1 MHz, for
example, inductance increases at 88 ppm/°C. and resistance increases at
2400 ppm/°C. (Temperature drift will be examined in detail in a later
article.)
Target Selection
The response of an eddy current sensor depends on both the conductivity
and the magnetic permeability of the target. In some applications the
designer is free to choose the target material; in others, the target is
part of a machine or assembly over which the designer has no control.
High-conductivity, nonmagnetic metals such as aluminum or copper make the
best targets. Magnetic metals are also good choices, even though the
sensor response is a mixture of eddy current and magnetic reluctance.
Magnetic reluctance describes the way in which magnetic material modifies
the effective permeability in a magnetic circuit. As a magnetic target
approaches the coil, eddy currents reduce the inductance, while
reluctance increases the inductance. Since these effects are in opposite
directions, they may cancel each other. The net result is an easily
avoidable null point in the sensor response at small standoff values.
The skin effect, or tendency for AC current to flow in the surface of a

conductor, applies to both the coil and the target. Due to the skin
effect, the current density in the target drops exponentially with
distance from the surface. Skin effect is characterized by the skin
depth, the distance at which the current density drops to 1/e of its
surface value. The expression for skin depth in a conductor is given by:
(2)
where:
= skin depth (meters)

= radian frequency (radians/second)
= magnetic permeability (henries/meter)
= conductivity (siemans/meter)
-6
For nonmagnetic materials, µ = µo = 1.26 x 10 H/m. Table 1 shows skin
depths in several materials for frequencies of interest in sensor design.
Notice that the lower the conductivity and frequency, the more deeply the
eddy currents penetrate the target. If the target is at least two skin
Steve Ye
depths thick, thickness is essentially eliminated as a factor in the

measurement [2]. This rule-of-thumb, however, is extremely conservative.
TABLE 1
Skin Depth ( ) in Microns for Various Metals and Frequencies
Metal Conductivity Conductivity Skin depth (µm)
(x 106 S/m) relative to Cu
10 kHz 100 kHz 1 MHz 10 MHz
Copper 58 1.000 660 210 66 21
Aluminum 38 0.655 820 260 82 26
304 SS 1.3 0.022 4400 1400 440 140
Titanium Alloy 0.59 0.010 6600 2100 660 210
Several target characteristics other than thickness, conductivity, and

permeability affect sensor behavior in ways that are difficult to predict
analytically. Differences are seen if the lateral dimensions of the
target are less than twice the sensor diameter, the target is curved, or
its surface roughness is comparable to the skin depth. Though these
situations are difficult to model, all can be accommodated with
measurements by building a prototype sensor and measuring its response
with an LCR meter. A versatile multifrequency instrument such as the
HP4285A is extremely valuable for sensor design because it displays L, R,
and Q directly with enough sensitivity to measure even minute effects
such as temperature drift.
Sensor Design
The design of a nearly optimal eddy current sensor is surprisingly easy.
We first need to establish some intuitive guidelines and a set of
simplified design equations. Measurements of the prototype sensor with an
LCR meter then provide highly accurate and detailed data for the design
of the electronics.
If small size is the primary goal, sensors based on wirewound coils are
the best choice. The fine magnet wire used in wirewound coils increases
the sensor Q by maximizing the number of turns while minimizing the
resistance. The magnet wire must be packed in perfect layers (usually by
hand) under a microscope. The coils are then inserted in a machined
protective holder and potted with epoxy to mechanically stabilize the
windings. A wirewound sensor is a labor intensive product, and typically
costs more than $100.
When cost is the primary consideration, coils printed on a PCB deliver

excellent performance for a fraction of the cost of a wire wound sensor.
The advantages of printing the sensor coil include:
Steve Ye
• Prototyping. Tooling costs are only a few hundred dollars. A single

prototype run can produce a large number of variations on the
sensor design.
• Manufacturing. PCB processes are highly automated, standardized,
and widely available. PC board processing scales well from tens to
millions of sensors.
• Cost. Coils cost less than $1.00 in volume, but the cabling and
connectors can easily dominate the overall price.
• Performance. The performance competes with wirewound sensors for
larger diameters (>10 mm).
• Special configurations. Arrays of sensors and sensors on flex
circuit material create unique application opportunities.
The primary tradeoff with printed sensors is size. It is difficult to

print a coil <10 mm dia. on a PCB and still match the performance of a
wirewound sensor. Table 2 outlines the most important factors and
tradeoffs in the design of an eddy current sensor.
TABLE 2
Factors in Sensor Design [2]
Factor Why How Tradeoffs
High-quality Fundamental determinant Increase frequency and Difficult to achieve high Q
factor, or Q of temperature stability, inductance, decrease with small sensors
power consumption, resistance; use a wire-
noise; do anything wound coil for small
possible to increase Q sensors
High Increases Q and reduces Use more turns in the High inductance is often
inductance power coil, a larger diameter accompanied by low self-
sensor, or a ferrite core resonant frequency
Low resistance Increases Q and reduces Use more conductive coil Frequency trades off with
power windings, larger wire or the need for high
thicker traces, keep inductance
temperatures low
Optimal coil Maximizes sensitivity to For highest accuracy and The larger the sensor the
size displacement stability choose radius=3 larger the "spot size" or
x range; a small sensor area of the target
has small range, too measured by the sensor;
large a sensor has the larger the sensor, the
reduced sensitivity larger the required target
dimensions
Flat, disc- Maximizes sensitivity by Use a printed coil Flat coil limits the number
shaped coil placing all of the turns of turns, reducing
configuration close to the target inductance
Operate at Increases Q and Reduce interwinding and Must stay below the self-
high frequency redeuces power in the cable capacitance resonant frequency; high
sensor; increases sensing frequency usually
bandwidth increases power in the
electronics
Steve Ye
Minimize cable Reduces cable noise, Place the critical circuits Placing electronics on or
length temperature drift, and cost in a pod close to the near the sensor limits the
of cabling; increases the sensor or load temperature range
self-resonant frequency; electronics on back of
allows use of lower printed coil
quality, cheaper cabling
A complete sensor typically has a cable joining the coil and the
electronics. The cable can be coaxial, twisted pair, ribbon, or traces on
a PCB. The cable affects system design and performance in several ways
because all cables have inductance, capacitance, and DC resistance. The
inductance of the cable adds to that of the sensor. Because the cable
inductance is static (not sensitive to displacement), it reduces the
sensor's net sensitivity. The cable capacitance forms part of the
resonant circuit network, so any instability in the cable capacitance
degrades measurement accuracy. Changes in cable capacitance with
temperature and cable movement produce measurement errors. A common
problem with eddy current sensors is noise traceable to cable vibration.
Eddy current sensors can be so sensitive that a hand moving near a
twisted-pair shows up as an observable displacement error, so the highest
performance sensors require fully shielded coaxial cable. The resistance
of the cable is in series with the sensor coil and contributes to a
reduction in Q and to temperature drift. For the best performance, we
must use high-quality microwave coaxial cable such as RG-178 or RG-316.
These cables have a highly stable Teflon dielectric and low capacitance.
When price is an important consideration, and some stability can be

sacrificed, twisted-pair or ribbon cabling is adequate and can be used
with very inexpensive connectors. Twisted-pair can be soldered to a
printed coil sensor directly, eliminating at least one set of connectors.
Measurement errors due to cabling can be greatly reduced by placing the
sensor interface circuitry on the back of a printed circuit coil. Even
though the circuit operates in the coil's magnetic field and the coil
"sees" the circuitry, performance is not seriously affected. It is
important, though, to avoid a ground plane or any large loop areas in the
circuit because the sensor would see these as a second target. With the
sensor circuitry integrated with the coil, we still must deliver power
and retrieve the output signal through cabling, but this cable in no way
affects the accuracy of the measurement.
To establish guidelines for the design of the sensor we need a preview of

the sensor drive circuitry. The circuits developed in the "Circuit
Design" section of this article place the sensor in an oscillator loop
where it is resonated with a capacitor. The frequency of oscillation
Steve Ye
(resonant frequency) is dependent on target displacement and is the

output of the circuit. In an LC oscillator the frequency is proportional
to 1/ LC. The design of an air core sensor with a printed circuit coil
follows these steps:
1. Set the outer coil radius, ro. We need:

ro > 2 x sensing range for a typical design
ro = sensing range for an aggressive design
2. Choose a manufacturing technology for the coil. The manufacturing

technology determines the width, w, thickness, t, and pitch, p, of the
traces that make up the coil windings.
3. Calculate the number of turns that can be packed on a single layer.

The outer coil radius, ro, was determined in an earlier step.
The inner coil radius, ri, should be at least 1/3 the outer radius.
The number of turns per layer is:
(3)
4. Calculate the unloaded inductance using Burkett's inductance

equation [3]. The unloaded inductance is the inductance of the free coil
with no target. Assume one layer for now.
(4)
5. Calculate the cable capacitance, CCABLE, from the cable length and the
manufacturer's specification of capacitance per unit length. Assume that
the interwinding capacitance, CIWC, is zero for a single layer coil. For a
two-layer coil, estimate CIWC to be ¼ the parallel plate capacitance,
calculated as if the windings were solid sheets of metal. Thus, for a
two-layer coil:
(5)
where:
r = relative dielectric constant (a dimensionless number; r = 4.2 for

FR-4 PC board)
-12
o = permittivity of free space = 8.86 × 10 F/m
Steve Ye
h = thickness of coil (meters)
6. Estimate the self-resonant frequency:
(6)
7. Choose the operating frequency. For the LC oscillator circuit, the

minimum frequency coincides with the maximum inductance and occurs at
maximum standoff. The maximum inductance is given approximately by
Equation 4. We want the maximum frequency, which is typically about twice
the minimum, to be no more than 1/3 the SRF so that the cable and
interwinding-capacitance have only a small effect. With these
considerations we have:
(7)
(8)
(9)
where:
C = total parallel resonant capacitance and L comes from Equation 4.

Equation 9 can be used to calculate the capacitance required to resonate
the sensor at the desired frequency.
8. Calculate the DC resistance of the coil:
(10)
where:
l = length of the coil windings

= 1/ = resistivity of the coil windings
w = width of traces of coil windings
t = thickness of traces in coil windings
9. Estimate the worst-case AC resistance, which is higher than the DC

resistance because of the skin effect and proximity effect.
RAC = 2RDC (11)
10. Calculate the unloaded Q. (The Q of the free coil with no target.)
Steve Ye
(12)
We need:
Unloaded Q > 15 for a typical design
Unloaded Q > 5 for a design with a Q >15
If Q is not high enough, consider adding additional layers to the coil.

Doubling the number of layers doubles the number of turns, which
quadruples the inductance while only doubling the resistance. The Q
therefore roughly doubles. Also, follow the guidelines in Table 2 to
increase Q.
11. Is the unloaded inductance acceptable? If the inductance is too

high (a rare situation except for large coils), the resonant capacitance
may be too low, allowing cable and interwinding capacitance to dominate
the sensor behavior. If the inductance is too low (a common problem,
especially for small coils), the circuits may burn excessive power or
require an impractically high operating frequency for acceptable Q.
We need:
1 µH < L < 100 µH for a typical design (but aim for L > 10 µH)
L < 1 µH for an aggressive design
If the inductance is too low, increase the number of turns by using a

finer pitch PC technology, adding layers, or using hybrid integrated
circuit technology.
12. Build a prototype of the coil and measure it on an LCR meter to

confirm the design and to collect data on L(x) and R(x) ( x = standoff).
The data will be used to design the electronics. To make these
measurements, attach the target and sensor to a micrometer with an
appropriate fixture.
Circuit Design
The challenge in circuit design for eddy current sensors is to develop an
output that is linearly proportional to standoff and independent of
temperature.
Steve Ye
The sensor converts displacement to a change in

impedance, and the circuit converts the change in
impedance to another electrical parameter such as
the amplitude, phase, or frequency of an RF
carrier. This signal must be demodulated,
temperature-compensated, linearized, offset, and
scaled. These steps may be carried out by a
circuit, an algorithm, or a combination of both.
The basis for nearly all eddy current sensor

circuits is shown in Figure 6, where the sensor
Figure 6. Adding a capacitor to
the sensor creates a resonant coil is resonated with a capacitor. Resonance
sensor network that magnifies the
sensitivity of the impedance to
causes abrupt changes in the circuit impedance
target displacement. (jw) = V(jw) / Z(j ), as shown in Figure 7, in which the middle
I (jw) = the complex impedance of
the circuit. point is x = 4 mm. In Figure 7(A), the magnitude
peaks at the resonant frequency and the height of
the peak depends on the Q, which in turn depends on the target
displacement. In Figure 7(B), the phase shifts from +90 at low frequency
to 90 at high frequency.
The frequency of the phase transition

depends on the inductance, which depends
on the target position.
A common way to convert the displacement

to voltage is simply to drive the
resonant circuit with a current source
at a fixed frequency and demodulate
either the amplitude or the phase of the
voltage that appears across the sensor.
Both amplitude and phase detection are Figure 7. The impedance, Z, of the resonant sensor
network in Figure 6 depends on frequency and target
complex, requiring an independent displacement. Target standoff, x, changes the
oscillator, phase detector, low-pass frequency at which the magnitude peaks (A) and the
phase crosses zero (B), providing bases for position
filter, and analog postconditioning sensing.
circuits.
Steve Ye
With the goal of designing a

position sensor of the lowest
possible cost, consider the self-
oscillating circuit of Figure 8. It
is a straightforward gate
oscillator using low-voltage CMOS
Figure 8. An LC gate-oscillator circuit with an eddy current logic gates. The two inverters
sensor generates a frequency output that depends on the
target standoff. A microcontroller can directly digitize the produce a large, positive voltage
frequency by counting the output pulses.
gain, so the circuit oscillates at
a frequency where the phase shift
of the resonant sensor network is zero. The output is a square wave whose
frequency is a function of displacement and which changes ~2:1 over the
full practical range of standoff. Assuming that a microcontroller is
already part of the host system, the advantages of the circuit in Figure
8 include:
• The output can be connected directly to the counter-timer port of

the microcontroller and digitized simply by counting pulses. The
microcontroller digitally linearizes, offsets, and scales the
output using constants stored during calibration.
• Because every sensor component (the coil and all electronics) is
under calibration, no costly, high precision devices are needed.
• The circuit operates on a single supply voltage at a few hundred
microamps of current.
• The circuit requires 7 electronic components at a material cost of
about $0.35. A PCB coil is on the order of $0.50 in volume. With
the addition of the load and test costs, the cable and assembly
labor, the entire sensor subsystem adds as little as $2.00 to the
cost of a high-volume, microcontroller-based product.
The circuit in Figure 8 oscillates at the resonant frequency given by:
(13)
To find the component values for Figure 8 we first determine the desired
operating frequency from the procedure described earlier. Then we solve
Equation 13 for Cp and choose the nearest standard value. Rs determines
the amplitude of the signal at the input of the first inverter as well as
the power consumption. To minimize noise it is desirable to have the
largest signal possible at the inverter input. The smaller the value of
Rs, the larger the signal, but the greater the power consumption. At
Steve Ye
equal to:
(14)
Rs and Rres form a voltage divider, so the amplitude is given by:
(15)
where:
4/ • VDD is the amplitude of the fundamental of the square-wave output

signal. We need only consider the fundamental component because Rs and the
LC tank form a bandpass filter centered on the frequency of oscillation.
This filter attenuates all but the fundamental component to a negligible
level. A good rule of thumb is that the peak-to-peak amplitude in
Equation 15 should be at least half the supply voltage, VDD, when the coil
is unloaded (i.e., when the target is not present). With this guideline
we would set Rs Rres, with Rres found for the unloaded case.
The higher the resistance at resonance (Equation 14), the less power it
takes to drive the sensor. Notice that the resistance goes up and the
power goes down for higher frequencies, higher inductances, and higher
values of Q.
CMOS gate oscillators such as that in Figure 8 exhibit curious power

dissipation characteristics. The first inverter operates part of the time
with its input at the logic threshold. This places it in the so-called
linear region, where it acts like a class B linear amplifier and conducts
current directly from the power supply to ground. The higher the supply
voltage, the higher the class B current, so the power in the circuit of
Figure 8 increases rapidly with supply voltage. For example, going from
VDD = 2.0 V to 2.5 V increases the current by a factor of four. By placing
a resistor between VDD and the inverter power pin the circuit can be
operated on higher supply voltages while maintaining low power
consumption. The resistor drops the voltage on the inverters and provides
negative feedback to limit the class B current. Of course, the decoupling
capacitor should still be attached to the power supply pin of the chip.
A Model Sensor System Design
Steve Ye
The sensor shown in Figure 9 was

fabricated to illustrate the
complete design of a low-cost sensor
system. It is an octagonal spiral
milled on a numerically controlled
milling machine designed specially
for rapid prototyping of printed
Figure 9. This 38 mm diameter PC sensor was designed
circuits. With this machine, a and prototyped in ~2 hr. with the aid of a PC milling machine.
Built on 0.76 mm (0.030 in.) circuit board, the traces are 0.5
sensor coil can be designed and mm wide with a 0.76 mm pitch, yielding a total of 34 turns on
fabricated in <1 hr. The LCR two layers.
measurements for this sensor with an

aluminum target are shown in Figure 3. The circuit used is shown in
Figure 8 with Rs = 10 k , Cp = 910 pF, and VDD = 2.0 V. Rs is a 1%, 100
ppm/°C metal film resistor, though a 5%, 200 ppm/°C resistor would have
negligible effect on overall performance. Cp is a 5% NPO capacitor with ±
30 ppm/°C temperature coefficient. The initial accuracy of Cp affects
only the initial frequency and is normally calibrated out. The drift of Cp
is very important, however, so an NPO capacitor or similarly stable
capacitor must be used.
Figure 10 shows the frequency output
for the model sensor system. The data
were taken with the aid of an HP53132A
frequency counter. Since the total
inductance shift in Figure 3 is 4:1,
the frequency shift is the square root
of that or 2:1. Operating between 1 MHz
and 2 MHz, there is an impressive total Figure 10. The frequency output of the gate oscillator
changes by almost 2:1, or 1 MHz, over the 19 mm
frequency shift of almost 1 MHz. sensing range. This example uses the 38 mm PC
sensor and an aluminum target.
The frequency is a highly nonlinear

function of displacement, so linearization is essential. The empirically
derived function:
(16)
Steve Ye
with fo = 981 kHz produces the

linearized output of Figure 11. The
linearity error is <1% of the 20 mm
F.S. range, or 200 µm. Even better
linearity could be attained by
calibrating at a large number of points
and using piecewise correction. The
advantage of linearizing with Equation Figure 11. For a range of 19 mm, the gate oscillator
produces excellent linearity of 1% after correction.
16 over piecewise linear correction is
that the constants, m, b, and fo, can be obtained with only three
calibration points: the end points and a point near the middle of the
range. It is not even necessary to know the midrange point exactly since
the calibration procedure need only place this point on a straight line
between the end points.
Figure 12 shows the sensor amplitude

and power supply current. Notice that
the amplitude decreases for small
values of standoff because the Q is
dropping rapidly. The reduced Q also
requires more drive current from the
power supply. With a supply voltage of
2.0 V the worst case power dissipation Figure 12. At 280 mA and 2 V the gate oscillator burns
is <600 µW. The power is so low that less than 600 µW, qualifying as a micropower sensor.
Eddy currents degrade the sensor Q, increasing the
the capacitance of a 15 pF scope probe power and decreasing the amplitude when the target is
close to the sensor.
on the output increases the power by
20% due to charge pumping.
The frequency output of the sensor is highly nonlinear, changing some

125:1 in slope over the full. If the circuit noise and quantization error
are roughly constant in terms of frequency, then they will not be
constant in terms of displacement. In terms of displacement, both the
noise and resolution vary in inverse proportion to the slope of the
frequency curve, so they will vary by 125:1 also. If we measure frequency
by counting N pulses over a gate time of Tg, the estimated frequency is
fest = N/Tg. The quantization error is ±1 count, so the frequency
resolution is f = 1/Tg. Clearly, the longer the gate time (and the
slower the sample rate), the higher the resolution. Arbitrarily high
resolutions can be reached by counting for longer periods. Noise is
reduced at the same time because the counting process acts as a digital
low-pass filter.
The resolution in terms of displacement depends on the slope of the
Steve Ye
frequency curve:
(17)
Noise follows the same form as Equation
17, increasing for larger values of
standoff. Figure 13 shows the
resolution and noise of the model
sensor for a gate time of 100 ms, or a
digitizing rate of 10 sps.. The noise
is ~20 Hz p-p as measured with the
HP53132A counter with a 100 ms gate
Figure 13. Displacement noise and quantization error
time. Most of the noise is at very low increase as the target moves away from the sensor
frequency (<1 Hz) and can be caused by because the inductance change decays with distance.
The noise and quantization are relative to a full-scale
vibration or temperature changes due to standoff of one coil radius and the frequency counter
gate time is 100 ms.
air currents. Notice that higher
resolution and lower noise can be attained by simply limiting the maximum
standoff.
A very good way to observe the noise is to display the output square wave
on a digital oscilloscope and delay the scope by 1 ms. With the sensor
operating at 1 MHz (a 1 µs period), the scope displays the phase noise
accumulated over 1000 cycles. With the digital scope set to infinite
persistence, the
trace will "paint" a band several

nanoseconds wide. The width of this
band divided by the delay time of 1 ms
gives the relative noise. For example,
20 nsp-p/1 ms is 20 ppm or 20 Hz at 1
MHz.
Figure 14 shows the temperature

stability of the sensor and the Figure 14. The temperature stability of the gate
electronics. The stability is poorer oscillator compares favorably with some of the best
commercial sensors. The temperature coefficient is
at large displacements because at taken relative to one coil radius.
large values of standoff the

temperature stability suffers the same disadvantage as the resolution
and noise. Limiting the sensing range can greatly improve temperature
stability. Table 3 summarizes the measured performance of the model
sensor for two values of full-scale range.
Steve Ye
TABLE 3
Summary of Performance of the Model Sensor System
Performance Parameter 10 mm Range 20 mm Range Units
Frequency range
Max. 1.88 1.88 MHz
Min. 1.05 1.00 MHz
Linearity 1% 1% of range
Quantization error
1 sps 17 15 bits
10 sps 14 12
100 sps 11 9
Noise, peak-to-peak
1 sps 14 12 bits
10 sps 13 11
100 sps 12 10
Temperature drift
Electronics -150 -540 ppm of
Sensor +300 +1200 range/°C
Power supply
VDD 2.0 2.0 V
IDD 280 280 µA
Power 560 560 µW
Power supply rejection 7 18 %/V
Conclusion
Eddy current sensors are advantageous for precision, noncontact
displacement sensing where the range is relatively small. They are
especially useful where the environment is dirty or sensing through
intervening materials is required. In applications where a
microcontroller is available, a high-performance eddy current sensor can
be added to the system for a few dollars, using printed circuit sensors
and manufacturing methods common to all electronic products.
Experience is essential to the successful design of eddy current sensors,

but it is quickly gained because printed circuit sensors are easily and
cheaply prototyped and only basic electronic instruments are needed for
testing. The essential design calculations can be done with a desktop
computer and a spreadsheet program. Future articles will investigate
advanced computer-aided design methods for optimizing the sensor and
advanced circuit designs for improved temperature stability.
Steve Ye

传感器的设计制作 - VOICE OF STEVE

Diunggah oleh

Informasi Dokumen

Deskripsi Asli:

Judul Asli

Hak Cipta

Format Tersedia

Bagikan dokumen Ini

Bagikan atau Tanam Dokumen

Opsi Berbagi

Apakah menurut Anda dokumen ini bermanfaat?

Apakah konten ini tidak pantas?

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

传感器的设计制作 - VOICE OF STEVE

Diunggah oleh

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

MSN:Steve.ye@carlogavazzi.cn; Email:Steveyts@126.

com Voice of 叶铁锁

Designing and Building an

Eddy current sensors are widely used for

sensors is that of supplying position

Practical eddy current sensors vary in diameter from a few millimeters to

Physics and Behavior

current, it generates an oscillating

that of the coil, reducing the magnetic flux in

The air-core transformer model is physically

The inductance and resistance are important characteristics of the sensor

= operating frequency of the sensor in radians per second

Q depends on the standoff, x, because both L and R are functions of

importance since it is constrained only

The coil's impedance is also affected

• Target size, flatness, and

Figure 4 shows the effect of target

Figure 5 shows the sensor's response

Temperature drift proves to be the critical source of error in eddy

The skin effect, or tendency for AC current to flow in the surface of a

= skin depth (meters)

depths thick, thickness is essentially eliminated as a factor in the

Several target characteristics other than thickness, conductivity, and

When cost is the primary consideration, coils printed on a PCB deliver

• Prototyping. Tooling costs are only a few hundred dollars. A single

The primary tradeoff with printed sensors is size. It is difficult to

When price is an important consideration, and some stability can be

To establish guidelines for the design of the sensor we need a preview of

(resonant frequency) is dependent on target displacement and is the

1. Set the outer coil radius, ro. We need:

2. Choose a manufacturing technology for the coil. The manufacturing

3. Calculate the number of turns that can be packed on a single layer.

The number of turns per layer is:

4. Calculate the unloaded inductance using Burkett's inductance

r = relative dielectric constant (a dimensionless number; r = 4.2 for

h = thickness of coil (meters)

6. Estimate the self-resonant frequency:

7. Choose the operating frequency. For the LC oscillator circuit, the

C = total parallel resonant capacitance and L comes from Equation 4.

8. Calculate the DC resistance of the coil:

l = length of the coil windings

9. Estimate the worst-case AC resistance, which is higher than the DC

RAC = 2RDC (11)

If Q is not high enough, consider adding additional layers to the coil.

11. Is the unloaded inductance acceptable? If the inductance is too

If the inductance is too low, increase the number of turns by using a

12. Build a prototype of the coil and measure it on an LCR meter to

The sensor converts displacement to a change in

The basis for nearly all eddy current sensor

The frequency of the phase transition

A common way to convert the displacement

With the goal of designing a

• The output can be connected directly to the counter-timer port of

The circuit in Figure 8 oscillates at the resonant frequency given by:

Rs and Rres form a voltage divider, so the amplitude is given by:

4/ • VDD is the amplitude of the fundamental of the square-wave output

CMOS gate oscillators such as that in Figure 8 exhibit curious power

A Model Sensor System Design

The sensor shown in Figure 9 was

measurements for this sensor with an

The frequency is a highly nonlinear

with fo = 981 kHz produces the