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handbook of modern sensors

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5.7 Bridge Circuits 195<br />

Fig. 5.38. Sensitivity <strong>of</strong> a disbalanced bridge as a function <strong>of</strong> impedance ratio.<br />

this concept. A control circuit modifies the value <strong>of</strong> R 3 on the command from the<br />

error amplifier. The output voltage may be obtained from the control signal <strong>of</strong> the<br />

balancing arm R 3 . For example, both R v and R 3 may be photoresistors. The R 3 photoresistor<br />

could be interfaced with a light-emitting diode (LED) which is controlled<br />

by the error amplifier. Current through the LED becomes a measure <strong>of</strong> resistance R v ,<br />

and, subsequently, <strong>of</strong> the light intensity detected by the sensor.<br />

5.7.3 Temperature Compensation <strong>of</strong> Resistive Bridge<br />

The connection <strong>of</strong> four resistive components in a Wheatstone bridge configuration<br />

is used quite extensively in measurements <strong>of</strong> temperature, force, pressure, magnetic<br />

fields, and so forth. In many <strong>of</strong> these applications, sensing resistors exhibit temperature<br />

sensitivity. This results in the temperature sensitivity <strong>of</strong> a transfer function, which,<br />

by using a linear approximation, may be expressed by Eq. (2.1) <strong>of</strong> Chapter 2. In<br />

any detector, except that intended for temperature measurements, this temperature<br />

dependence has a highly undesirable effect, which usually must be compensated for.<br />

One way to do a compensation is to couple a detector with a temperature-sensitive<br />

device, which can generate a temperature-related signal for the hardware or s<strong>of</strong>tware<br />

correction. Another way to do a temperature compensation is to incorporate it directly<br />

into the bridge circuit. Let us analyze the Wheatstone bridge output signal with respect<br />

to its excitation signal V e . We consider all four arms in the bridge being responsive<br />

to a stimulus with the sensitivity coefficient, α, so that each resistor has the value<br />

R i = R(1 ± αs), (5.48)

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