Lecture 1 part A:

Introduction to sensors
ELEC-E5710 Sensors and Measurement
Methods
2017
 VIM: International Vocabulary of Metrology

Terminology http://www.bipm.org/en/publications/guides/vim.html

• Sensor is an element of a measurement device or a

measurement chain that is immediately affected by
measured quantity. (VIM)
– Sensor detects a change in a physical quantity and expresses it
as a signal (usually electrical) which can be read.
• Transducer is a device that transmits energy from one
system to another in same or different format.
– Transducers can be both sensors and actuators.

Introduction to sensors 2
Transformation of signal/energy
Out
Radiation Mechanical Thermal Electrical Magnetic Chemical
In

Photo-
Radiation Absorption Photoelectric Photomagnet Photosynthes
Radiation luminescen
pressure of radiation effect ism is
ce
Preservation
Piezo- Warming Pressure
of Piezoelectric
Mechanical luminescen due to Villari effect induced
momentum effect
ce friction explosion
(gears)

(Thermal) Thermal Seebeck Curie-Weiss Endothermic

Thermal Glowing
expansion conductivity effect effect al processes

Electrical
Piezoelectric Semiconduct Ampère’s
Electrical luminescen
effect
Peltier effect
ors law
Electrolysis Actuators
ce

Faraday Magnetostric Ettinghausen Magnetostric

Magnetic Hall effect
effect tive effect tion

Chemical
Exothermica Chemical
Chemical luminescen Explosion Volta effect
l processes reaction
ce

Sensors
Introduction to sensors 3
Miller-index notation*
• Transducers can generate signal directly from stimulus.
– Solar cell, thermocouple, LED
• … or modulate some other signal with a stimulus.
– Strain gauge, thermistor, LCD
• In Miller-index the third axis is a modulating stimulus, ergo
[in, out, mod].
– Thermocouple: [thermal, elec., 0]
– Thermistor: [elec., elec., thermal]
– Solar cell: [radiation, electrical, 0]
– Transistor: [elec., elec., elec.]

Introduction to sensors * S. Middelhoek, S.A. Audet, ”Silicon Sensors”, 1994 4

The perfect sensor

• Very sensitive when measuring an effect

• Totally insensitive to any other effects/quantities except
the measured one.
• Does not affect the measured quantity or target.
• The transfer function is linear and signal has no offset.
→ One sensitivity number and a zero signal with a zero stimulus.
• Does not exist

Introduction to sensors 5
Transfer function of a sensor

• The dependence of sensor output signal S on the

input stimulus s.

– Linear
S = a + bs
– Logarithmic
S = a + b ln(s)
– Exponential
S = a eks
– Power
S = a0 + a1 s k
• More complicated transfer functions can be modelled
with a higher order polynomial function.

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Properties of sensors

• Sensitivity is the derivative

of the transfer function with
respect to input stimulus

𝑑𝑆(𝑠)
𝑑𝑠

• Dynamic range (Span)

• Saturation
• Resolution

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Error factors

• Sensitivity error
• Sensors drift
– Have to be calibrated often
enough!
• Calibrated at the same
signal area as the
measurement signals of
application

Introduction to sensors 8
Error factors
Non-linearity Offset

𝑑𝑆 Sometimes designed intentionally

= 𝑓(𝑠)
𝑑𝑠 in industrial systems

Introduction to sensors 9
Hysteresis

• The maximum
difference in the
output between
increasing and
decreasing inputs
– Magnetisation in
ferromagnetics
– Backlash in
mechanical systems

Introduction to sensors 10
Dynamical properties of sensors

• Sensitivity of a sensor with a variable stimulus

– E.g. it takes some time for a temperature sensor to
reach the target temperature -> time constants
– Inductances, masses, thermal and electrical
capacitances etc.
– Sluggishness restricts frequency band

Introduction to sensors 11
Zeroth order sensors

𝑆 𝑡 = 𝑎 + 𝑏𝑠 𝑡

• S(t) is a sensor signal, s(t) is stimulus, b is static (linear)

sensitivity, a is offset
• Sensor has neither capacitance nor mass
• The sensitivity of sensor follows stimulus without delay
• E.g. potentiometric transitional sensor

Introduction to sensors 12
First order sensors
𝑏1 𝑆 ′ 𝑡 + 𝑏0 𝑆 𝑡 = 𝑠 𝑡
• Include one component that stores energy
• Temperature sensor is a first order sensor (temperature capacity)
• Step response: 𝑆 = 𝑆𝑚 (1 − 𝑒 −1Τ𝜏 )
• 𝜏 is time constant (dynamic response), Sm is static response

Introduction to sensors 13
Second order sensors
𝑏2 𝑆 ′′ 𝑡 + 𝑏1 𝑆 ′ 𝑡 + 𝑏0 𝑆 𝑡 = 𝑠 𝑡
• Include two components that store energy
• Acceleration sensor is a second order sensor (mass and spring)
• Characterized by resonance frequency (natural frequency)
– Shows where the signal of the sensor grows plentifully

Introduction to sensors 14
The effect of environmental factors

• Transfer function varies due to environmental factors

– Storing and operation conditions are often specified
– Affect stability (especially long term)

• The most important factor is temperature

– Does not only affect temperature measuring but also nearly
everything
• Relative humidity
• EM-fields
• Varying these factors during measurements causes
inaccuracies

Introduction to sensors 15
Further classification

• By the measured phenomenon

– E.g. temperature, pressure, flow, etc.

• By the operation mechanism

– E.g. resistive, capacitive, electricity generating

Introduction to sensors 16
Resistive sensors

Operating principles:
• Ohm’s Law
• Light resistive effect
• Piezoresistive effect
• Thermal resistive effect of metals and semiconductors
• Bioimpedance

Introduction to sensors 17
Resistive sensors

• Resistance depends on resistivity r and

𝑙
geometry of a wire (cross-sectional area 𝑅=𝜌
a and length l): 𝑎

• Resistivity depends on the electric field 𝐸

𝜌=
strength E and current density j : 𝑗

• Resistivity of metals depends nearly

linearly on temperature: 𝜌 = 𝜌0 [1 + 𝛼 𝑡 − 𝑡0 ]

Introduction to sensors 18
Potentiometric sensors (Ohm’s law)

• Mounted potentiometer has a moving contact

• The contact of the potentiometer is either sliding
or rotatable
– Linear or angular position sensor

Introduction to sensors 19
Potentiometric pressure sensor
DP Pressured fluid/gas
changes the torque
on the spiral spring
when the lever
moves and thus
changes the
resistance.

Introduction to sensors 20
Light resistive sensors
• The resistance of a photoresistor decreases
when the amount of light increases.
• Photoresistor can be called LDR (light
dependent resistor), photoconductor or photo
cell
– It is made of semiconductor with high resistance:
– Absorbed photon energises an electron to the conduction
band.
– Generated free electron increases conductance.
– CdS is the most sensitive to visible light.
– PbSe is the most effective to near infrared light.

Introduction to sensors 21
Piezoresistive sensors

• The resistance of a material changes in consequence of

mechanical strain.

𝐿
• Resistance of conductor: 𝑅= 𝜌
𝐴

• Resistance change due to

– Change of geometry (metal strain gauge) or
– resistivity (semiconductor strain gauge).

Introduction to sensors 22
Piezoresistive sensors

• Are used in e.g. force, pressure, acceleration, and

oscillation sensors
• Good frequency response
• Sensitive to
– temperature changes
– mechanical interferences
• Compensating circuits are needed to fix the errors
caused by aforementioned changes

Introduction to sensors 23
Thermal resistive sensors
- metal resistance temperature detector (RTD)
• Wire-wound resistor: a very thin wire
spun around a substrate.
• Thin-film resistor: thin metal foil overlaid on
a substrate using thin-film litografy.
• The most common metals: platinum,
copper, nickel
• Resistance has quite a linear temperature
dependancy

Introduction to sensors 24
Thermal resistive sensors
Thermistors – semiconductor thermometers
• Large sensitivity, large nonlinearity
• NTC – negative temperature coefficient –
resistance decreases while temperature
increases (also PTC - resistance increases while
temperature increases - mainly used for safety
components)
• Mechanically sensitive, cheap and small.
• Suffer from self-heating

Introduction to sensors 25
Resistive humidity sensors (humistor)

• Measure changes in resistance of a

hygroscopic material
– Heavily dependent of the concentration of
absorbed water molecules
– Usually an exponential dependence to humidity
• Usually includes a substrate and two silk screen printed
conducting electrodes
– Surface of the substrate is covered with a conducting ceramic
binder and sensor is assembled into a plastic case which has a
dust filter in it.

Introduction to sensors 26
Capacitive way of measuring
• Is based on a change of a parameter value of a
condensator when a specific condition changes.
• Capacitance: 𝐶 = 𝜀𝑟 𝜀0 𝐺
– where 𝜀𝑟 and 𝜀0 are relative permittivity of the insulator and
permittivity of vacuum and G is geometry factor

• G is determined by the shape of the capacitor:

– Plate capacitor: 𝐺 = 𝐴/𝑑

𝑏
– Cylinder capacitor: 𝐺 = 2𝜋𝑙/[ln ]
𝑎

– Spherical capacitor: 𝐺 = 4𝜋𝑟1 𝑟2 /(𝑟2 − 𝑟1 )

Introduction to sensors 27
Capacitive way of measuring

• Can be used to recognise movement and to measure

pressure, power and acceleration.
• The capacitance of a sensor changes when the distance
(a), area (b), permittivity (c) or conductance (d) of plates
change.

Introduction to sensors 28
Applications of plate capacitor sensors

Introduction to sensors 29
Capacitive humidity sensor

• Polymer between two electrodes

• Permittivity depends on humidity

Introduction to sensors 30
Chemical capacitive sensor

• A chemically sensitive polymer between two electrodes

• Polymer absorbs special chemical and then
consequently expands. This increases the distance and
the permittivity between the electrodes => capacitance
changes

Introduction to sensors 31
Shrinking capacitive sensor

• Sensor has flexible, conducting elastomer as electrodes

instead of ordinary hard metals.
• An electrode with large area and short distance =>
higher capacitance.
• Load bends elastomer and thus changes the geometry
and capacitance

Introduction to sensors 32
Piezoelectric effect

• Mechanical stress causes electric polarization

and also other way round: electric field causes
mechanical stress.
• Mechanic or acoustic signals can be
transformed into electrical ones.
• Power, acceleration, elongation and pressure
sensors, microphones etc…

Introduction to sensors 33
Hall sensors

• Current flow in a thin

semiconducting plate.
• Direction of the current
changes when the plate
is placed into a
perpendicular magnetic
field.
• Lorentz’s force
determines the direction
of electrons

Introduction to sensors 34
Electrochemical ways of measuring

• Resistance chemical sensors measure change

in electroconductivity when the active part of the
sensor interacts with a chemical analyte.
– Semiconductors (metal oxides, conducting polymer)
– E.g. Tin oxide resistor to detect gas
– Reducible gas decreases the resistance of the sensor
and oxidizable gas increases it.

Introduction to sensors 35
 on to part B…

Introduction to sensors 36