Signal Conditioning

Signal Conditioning

Signal conditioning is one of the most common tasks performed by engineers’ electricians. The term refers to the modulation of an analog signal in order for it to fulfill the specifications of the preceding step, resulting in increased processing. Analog to digital converters are the most common kind of signal conditioner. Going through the process of signal conditioning allows one to understand the feature as well as the means by which it is performed, and as a result, a person can carry out the process by himself/herself and thereby save money that would otherwise be spent on hiring expensive electricians. Analog to digital converters are the most common in the modern environment, and this is because many countries in the 21st century have changed to digital networks. Most of the developing countries used analog systems, but with the changing environment due to technology, it has become essential to switch to the digital network. In engineering applications, it is vital to have a stage of sensing (Pallas 98). There is also a conditioning signal stage. In this stage, there is the increase of the signal strength. After the conditioning stage, there is the processing stage. A microcontroller is the one involved in this stage. An ADC is used together with a microcontroller in the processing stage. In half effect sensors, the feature comes inherent.

Signal Condition Card

A signal condition card is commonly used in power electronics, and this is before processing the sensed signals through current sensors and input sensed signals. There is numerous conditioning process in modern physics. The most common function in signal conditioning is filtering (Sun 470). The importance of filtering is the fact that not all the signal frequency has valid data. Filtering the data is essential for it ensures there is the highest or rather the best form of frequency. If amplified in the wrong manner, some unnecessary noise might pass through.

Amplification in Signal Conditioning

Amplifying is the other aspect of signal conditioning. There are two important reasons for amplification. One of the reasons why there are amplifications is the fact that there is an increase in the resolution of the incoming signal. There is also signal to noise ratio that is increased. Some of the mostly used amplifiers in signal conditioning are the sample and hold, log amplifiers and peak detectors. Instrumental amplifiers are also important and used in temperature sensors.

Electrical Isolation

Electrical isolation is also used to transmit the signal from its source. It is essential to isolate the expensive machine used for signal amplification from the sensor. Optic isolation is also used in the modern environment, and the benefit of this method is that it gets to isolate sounds even better than electrical isolation (Mitra 103). This form of isolation changes the signal from voltage to a magnetic signal. Optic isolation is also essential for modulating a signal that is electric to a signal functioned by optical encoding.

Excitation and Linearization

Another aspect to understand about signal conditioning is excitation. Power from an external source is important for the operation of an active sensor. Precision and stability of the signal are directly related to the sensor stability and accuracy (Mitra 47). Linearization in signal conditioning is vital when these sensors produce signals of voltage. It is defined as the process of capturing and interpreting the signal that comes from the sensor, and this is best achieved using the software.

Work Cited

Pallas-Areny, Sensors and signal conditioning. New York: Wiley, 2011.

Sun, Yan, “ECG signal conditioning by morphological filtering.” Computers in biology and medicine 32.6 (2012): 465-479.

Mitra, Sanjit K. Handbook for digital signal processing. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013.