Acoustic, Chemical &

Optical Tranducers
Their Purpose & Applications

Basic concept and purpose of a Transducer has been

explained along with emphasis on Acoustic, Chemical
and Optical Transducer. Their characteristics, need and
various applications have been discussed in detail.

Arvind Kumar Sharma

August 20, 2010
ACOUSTIC, CHEMICAL & OPTICAL TRANSDUCER
Arvind Kumar Sharma
B.Tech (IV Year)
Pulp & Paper Technology
IIT Roorkee Saharanpur Campus,
Saharanpur (U.P)
India 247001

INTRODUCTION

Transducers are electric or electronic devices that transform energy from

one manifestation into another. Most people, when they think of transducers,
think specifically of devices that perform this transformation in order to
gather or transfer information, but really, anything that converts energy can
be considered a transducer.

Transducers that detect or transmit information include common items such

as microphones, Geiger meters, potentiometers, pressure sensors,
thermometers, and antennae. A microphone, for example, converts sound
waves that strike its diaphragm into an analogous electrical signal that can
be transmitted over wires. A pressure sensor turns the physical force being
exerted on the sensing apparatus into an analog reading that can be easily
represented. While many people think of transducers as being some sort of
technical device, once you start looking for them, you will find transducers
everywhere in your everyday life.

Most transducers have an inverse that allows for the energy to be returned to
its original form. Audio cassettes, for example, are created by using a
transducer to turn the electrical signal from the microphone pick-up – which
in turn went through a transducer to convert the sound waves into electrical
signal – into magnetic fluctuations on the tape head. These magnetic
fluctuations are then read and converted by another transducer – in this case
a stereo system – to be turned back into an electrical signal, which is then
fed by wire to speakers, which act as yet another transducer to turn the
electrical signal back into audio waves.

Other transducers turn one type of energy into another form, not for the
purpose of measuring something in the external environment or to

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communicate information, but rather to make use of that energy in a more
productive manner. A light bulb, for example, one of the many transducers
around us in our day-to-day lives, converts electrical energy into visible light.
Electric motors are another common form of electromechanical transducer,
converting electrical energy into kinetic energy to perform a mechanical task.
The inverse of an electric motor – a generator – is also a transducer, turning
kinetic energy into electrical energy that can then be used by other devices.

As in all energy conversions, some energy is lost when transducers operate.

The efficiency of a transducer is found by comparing the total energy put into
it to the total energy coming out of the system. Some transducers are very
efficient, while others are extraordinarily inefficient. A radio antenna, for
example, acts as a transducer to turn radio frequency power into an
electromagnetic field; when operating well, this process is upwards of 80%
efficient. Most electrical motors, by contrast, are well under 50% efficient,
and a common light bulb, because of the amount of energy lost as heat, is
less than 10% efficient.

OPTICAL TRANSDUCERS

Introduction

 NEW REVOLUTION OF OPTICAL FIBER SENSORS

 IT IS A “SPIN-OFF” FROM OTHER OPTICAL TECHNOLOGIES
 SEEING THE POTENTIAL IN SENSING APPLICATIONS – DEVELOPED
AS ITS OWN FIELD

Why Optical Transducers?

 ELECTROMAGNETIC IMMUNITY
 ELECTRICAL ISOLATION
 COMPACT AND LIGHT
 BOTH POINT AND DISTRIBUTED CONFIGURATION
 WIDE DYNAMIC RANGE
 AMENABLE TO MULTIPLEXING

Techniques by which the measurements are made can be broadly grouped in

three categories depending on

(a) how the sensing is accomplished,

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(b) the physical extent of the sensing, and

(c) the role of the optical fiber in the sensing process.

Means of sensing

In this category, sensors are generally based either on measuring an

intensity change in one or more light beams or on looking at phase changes
in the light beams by causing them to interact or interfere with one another.
Thus sensors in this category are termed either intensity sensors or
interferometric sensors. Techniques used in the case of intensity sensors
include light scattering (both Rayleigh and Raman), spectral transmission
changes (i.e., simple attenuation of transmitted light due to absorption),
microbending or radiative losses, reflectance changes, and changes in the
modal properties of the fiber. Interferometric sensors have been
demonstrated based upon the magneto-optic, the laser-Doppler, or the
Sagnac effects, to name a few

Extent of sensing

This category is based on whether sensors operate only at a single point or

over a distribution of points. Thus, sensors in this category are termed either
point sensors or distributed sensors. In the case of a point sensor, the
transducer may be at the end of a fiber the sole purpose of which is to bring
a light beam to and from the transducer. Examples of this sensor type are
interferometers bonded to the ends of fibers to measure temperature and
pressure. In the case of a distributed sensor, as the name implies, sensing is
performed all along the fiber length. Examples of this sensor type are fiber
Bragg gratings distributed along a fiber length to measure strain or
temperature.

Role of optical fiber

Further distinction is often made in the case of fiber sensors as to whether

measurands act externally or internally to the fiber. Where the transducers
are external to the fiber and the fiber merely registers and transmits the
sensed quantity, the sensors are termed extrinsic sensors. Where the
sensors are embedded in or are part of the fiber -- and for this type there is
often some modification to the fiber itself -- the sensors are termed internal
or intrinsic sensors. Examples of extrinsic sensors are moving gratings to
sense strain, fiber-to-fiber couplers to sense displacement, and absorption
cells to sense chemistry effects. Examples of intrinsic sensors are those that
use microbending losses in the fiber to sense strain, modified fiber claddings
to make spectroscopic measurements, and counter-propagating beams
within a fiber coil to measure rotation.

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Working Principle

• LIGHT BEAM CHANGES BY THE PHENOMENA THAT IS BEING

MEASURED.

• LIGHT MAY CHANGE IN ITS FIVE OPTICAL PROPERTIES i.e

INTENSITY, PHASE, POLARIZATION, WAVELENGTH AND
SPECTRAL DISTRIBUTION.

Sensing Details

General Equation of light wave:

Y= EP(t)cos[ωt+θ(t)]

• INTENSITY BASED SENSORS – EP (t)

• FREQUENCY VARYING SENSORS - ωP(t)
• PHASE MODULATING SENSING- θ(t)
• POLARIZATION MODULATING FIBER SENSING

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CLASSIFICATION

 Extrinsic Sensor

WHERE THE LIGHT LEAVES THE FEED OR TRANSMITTING FIBER TO BE CHANGED

BEFORE IT CONTINUES TO THE DETECTOR BY MEANS OF THE RETURN OR
RECEIVING FIBER.

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Intrinsic Sensor

INTRINSIC SENSORS ARE DIFFERENT IN THE SENSE THAT LIGHT BEAM DOES NOT
LEAVE THE OPTICAL FIBER BUT IS CHANGED WHILE STILL CONTAINED WITHIN IT.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Optical Sensors

R&D in the optical sensor field is motivated by the expectation that optical
sensors have significant advantages compared to conventional sensor types,
in terms of their properties.

Taking advantage of the capacity of optical fibers to send and receive optical
signals over long distances, a current trend is to create networks of sensors,
or sensor arrays. This avoids having to convert between electronics and
photonics separately at each sensing site, thereby reducing costs and
increasing flexibility.

A difficulty of all sensors, both optical and non optical, is interference from
multiple effects. A sensor intended to measure strain or pressure may be
very temperature-sensitive. Intense R&D over the last five years to provide
means for distinguishing between various effects has been conducted for
optical sensors. Considerable progress has been made, as will be discussed
below.

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APPLICATIONS

 MILITARY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

THIS SENSOR ENABLES LOW LIGHT IMAGING AT TV FRAME

RATES AND ABOVE WITHOUT THE LIMITATIONS OF VACCUM TUBE
BASED SYSTEMS.
COMPRISES OF :

 AMPLIFIED CCD SENSOR

 ANTI BLOOMING TECHNOLOGY
 CRYSTAL POLYMER SHUTTER

ADVANTAGES:

 EXCEPTIONAL DAY LIGHT RESOLN.

 IMMUNE TO OVER EXPOSURE
 VERY HIGH CONTARAST LEVELS
 NO HALOING OR SCINTILLATIONS

 BIOMETRICS

YOUR FACE, FINGERS AND EYES IN A WHOLE NEW LIGHT

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  IMAGE CAPTURE
 IMAGE PROCESSING
 FEATURE EXTRACTION
 FEATURE COMPARISON

CHEMICAL TRANSDUCERS

Devices used to monitor, measure, test, analyse data as generated due to

changes in a measured norm (usually concentration for chemical sensors).

Gas Sensors

Applications:
 Controlled combustion (automobile, industrial furnaces)
 Toxic and inflammable gas detection (leakages)
 Electronic noses for air-quality monitoring, food quality and medical
diagnosis

Sensing Principles

 Electrochemical (solid electrolyte and amperometric)

 Catalytic combustion (hot-wire)
 Semiconductor (conduction)

Solid electrolyte gas sensors

Today's automobiles monitor combustion efficiency using a galvanic oxygen

sensor in the exhaust manifold. This sensor measures the oxygen pressure of

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the exhaust gas. The potential between two electrodes depends solely on the
ratio of the partial pressures of oxygen at each electrode, separated by an
oxygen ion conductor; zirconia . The chemical reactions (electron transfer) at
each electrode are the same but in reverse of one another; at one electrode
the reduced form of the chemical particle is being oxidised (releasing
electrons) and at the other electrode the oxidised form is being reduced
(accepting electrons). The voltage output of the sensor is sent in a feedback
loop to control the air/fuel mixture for optimised combustion.

TWC

Cars are equipped with a three-way catalytic converter, so-called as it

helps decrease carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and NOx emissions using both
reduction and oxidation catalysts (such as platinum, rhodium and/or
palladium).
In order to reduce emissions, modern car engines carefully control the
amount of fuel they burn. They try to keep the air-to-fuel ratio very close to
the stoichiometric point, which is the calculated ideal ratio of air to fuel,
using a lambda sensor feedback. Theoretically, at this ratio, all of the fuel will
be burned using all of the oxygen in the air. For petrol engines it is about
14.7:1. As engine and driving conditions change, this ratio changes as well.
Sometimes it will run richer or leaner than the ideal 14.7:1.

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AMPEROMETRIC SENSORS

An oxygen cell can simply be considered as an enclosure which holds a flat

PtFe tape coated with an active catalyst (Pt), the cathode, and a metal
anode.

This enclosure is airtight apart from a small capillary at the top of the cell
which allows oxygen access to the working electrode. The two electrodes are
connected, via current collectors, to the pins which protrude externally and
allow the sensor to be electronically connected to an instrument.

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Universal Exhaust Gas Oxygen (UEGO) Sensor

This is the combination of an amperometric sensor and a potentiometric

sensor for use with “lean-burn” engines.

The potentiometric, lambda, sensor determines whether the burn is lean or

rich, while the amperometric sensor determines the precise oxygen pressure.

Toxic Gas Sensors

The reactions that take place at the electrodes in a carbon monoxide sensor
are:
Sensing: CO + H2O  CO2 + 2H+ + 2e–

Counter: ½O2 + 2H+ + 2e-  H2O

Overall reaction is: CO + ½O2  CO2

Similar reactions take place for all other toxic gases that are capable of being
electrochemically oxidised or reduced (H2S,Cl2).

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Interferences

An auxiliary electrode can assist in overcoming cross interference from other

gases. Typically carbon monoxide sensors show a significant response to
hydrogen which can make the accurate measurement of CO difficult when
hydrogen is present.
However, using a sensor with an auxiliary electrode all of the CO and some of
the H2 reacts on the sensing electrode leaving only H2 to react with the
auxiliary electrode. Once the ratio of the responses on each electrode in
known, a H2 –compensated signal can be obtained by subtracting the
auxiliary signal from the sensing electrode signal with an analogue circuit or
using a microprocessor with appropriate software.

Applications

Oxygen:

Typical applications include the measurement of oxygen deficiency in

confined spaces such as tunnels, mines or chemical plant or for the analysis
of combustion gases in flues and chimney stacks. Amperometric oxygen
sensors are also used in patient monitoring.

CO:

Sensors are available for a wide range of applications, including residential

safety, fire detection (smouldering fires), and industrial safety devices.

Toxic gases:

Personal and industrial safety. Flue gas emission monitoring.

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Catalytic combustion sensors

A pellistor element is simply a platinum wire coil, coated with a catalytic

slurry of an inert base material (e.g. alumina) and a metal catalyst which
accelerates the oxidation reaction. This type of element is known as the
"sensitive" element. There are a number of catalyst materials available and
the precise type and mix is carefully chosen to optimise sensor performance.

Pellistor systems

The standard sensor consists of a matched pair of elements, typically

referred to as a detector and compensator (reference element). The detector
comprises a platinum wire coil embedded within a bead of catalytic material.
The compensator is similar except that the bead does not contain catalytic
material and as a consequence is inert.

Both elements are normally operated in a Wheatstone bridge circuit, that will
produce an output only if the resistance of the detector differs from that of
the compensator.

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Pellistor Principles

The bridge is supplied with a constant dc voltage that heats the elements to
500-550°C. A chemical reaction (oxidation) occurs when a combustible gas
reaches the sensing element. This increases the temperature of the element.
This T rise is transmitted to the platinum heater coil which causes an
increase in the resistance of the wire. The inert element is unaffected and
this results in an electrical imbalance in the bridge circuit and a detectable
output signal is obtained. The output voltage level depends on the type of
the detected gas, but shows an excellent linearity with the gas concentration
level.

Theoretically dV=(dR×V)/4R

where :

dR = k×a×m×Q/C
dV Output voltage
R Resistance value of sensor in clean air
V Bridge supply voltage
dR Resistance value variation of the heater
k Constant
m Gas concentration
a Thermal coefficient of heater material
C Thermal capacity of sensor
Q Molecular heat of combustion of gas

Pellistor Applications

Catalytic gas sensors (pellistors) are an industry standard for the detection of
flammable gas.

Catalytic sensors will oxidise most combustible vapours and as such offer a
true "explosimeter". Their sensitivity to different substances varies,
depending on the combustibility of the substance.
The sensitivity of a catalytic sensor is defined as its relative sensitivity to
methane. It is thus important to identify which substances are most likely to
be present and to set the sensitivity of the finished detector in accordance
with the substance that has the lowest relative sensitivity.

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Semiconductor gas sensors

Most widely studied area of solid-state gas sensors is that based on

semiconducting oxides.

The discovery in 1953 that adsorption of a gas onto the surface of a metal
oxide semiconductor produced a large change in its electrical resistance
signalled the advent of mixed metal oxide semiconductor sensor
(MMOS) technology. The effect is commercially exploited for only a few
oxides due to the requirement for a unique combination of resistivity,
magnitude of resistance change in gas (sensitivity) and humidity effects.
Amongst the oxides which are used as MMOS sensors are
ZnO2, TiO2, Cr2TiO3, WO3 and SnO2.

MMOS

The resistance change is caused by a loss or a gain of surface electrons as a

result of adsorbed oxygen reacting with the target gas. If the oxide is an n-
type, there is either a donation (reducing gas) or subtraction (oxidising gas)
of electrons from the conduction band. The result is that n-type oxides
increase their resistance when oxidising gases such as NO2, O3 are present
while reducing gases such as CO, CH4, C2H5OH lead to a reduction in
resistance. The converse is true for p-type oxides, such as Cr2TiO3.
MMOS sensors can be made quantitative, as the magnitude of change in
electrical resistance is a direct measure of the concentration of the target gas
present.

Digital smells!

An example of the electronic nose is given below, where an array of 8

sensors output different patterns for each gas. If the array is “trained”
properly it can recognise the individual gases in mixtures (chemometrics).

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Digital Tastes-the electronic tongue

This is generally the solution analogue of the electronic nose. That is, sensors
that can monitor classes of chemicals in solution are placed in an array to
output a pattern that is indicative of a event of interest.

What is an electronic tongue?

Best for matching complex samples with subjective endpoints such as odour
or flavour.

For example, when has milk turned sour? Or, when is a batch of coffee beans
optimally roasted? When is a water sample toxic?

The array can be trained to match a set of sensor responses to a calibration

set produced by the human taste panel or olfactory panel routinely used in
food science. Although these arrays are effective for pure chemicals,
conventional methods are often more practical.

Areas of application

• Identification of spilled chemicals.

• Air quality monitoring

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 • Quality of foods and drinks.
• Water and wastewater analysis.
• Detection and diagnosis of infections.

ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCERS

An acoustic transducer is an electrical device that coverts sound wave

vibrations into mechanical or electrical energy. They have various practical
applications, including sound recording and sound playback. A specialized
model, called an ultrasonic acoustic transducer, can be used to measure
distance to, as well as the mass of, an object.

Common types of acoustic transducers used in sound recording include

microphones, earphones, and guitar pickups. These create electrical energy
when moving parts inside the transducer, such as electrical plates or ribbons,
are exposed to sound vibrations. The electrical energy produced inside the
transducer is sent first to an amplifier.

The amplifier then sends this energy to its final destination, usually a
loudspeaker or recording device. The loudspeaker reproduces the sound at a
level that the human ear can hear. A recording device will retain the
electrical signal information. The recorder will send the stored signal to a
loudspeaker during playback.

An ultrasonic acoustic transducer can be used to measure distance or the

mass of an object. The most common type is the piezoelectric acoustic
transducer. These include a piezoelectric ceramic element that creates and
distributes ultrasonic sound waves.

Sound waves travel to an object from a piezoelectric transducer through

material called a couplant. The couplant is usually water. Sound waves

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bounce off the object and return to the transducer in the form of an echo.
The time it takes for these echoes to return to the transducer is used to
calculate the distance to the object.

Underwater sound navigation and ranging (SONAR) is a common use of an

ultrasonic acoustic transducer. SONAR uses directional beams of sound
waves. This enables the SONAR operator to determine the direction and
distance to an object.

SONAR systems can be active or passive. An active system sends out sound
waves and listens for echoes. A passive system listens for noises made by
ships, fish, and landmasses.

An electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) is another form of ultrasonic

transducer. Instead of a ceramic element, an electro magnet is the main
component of an EMAT. This is a type of non-contact, or non-destructive
transducer. Unlike piezoelectric transducers, EMATs do not need a couplant
to carry sound waves. Instead, two electromagnetic fields are generated to
disburse ultrasonic waves.

An electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT), is a non-contact

inspection device that generates an ultrasonic pulse in the part or sample
inspected, instead of the transducer. The waves reflected by the sample
induce a varying electric current in the receiver (which can be the same
EMAT used to generate the ultrasound, or a separate receiver). This current
signal is interpreted by software to provide clues about the internal structure
of the sample.

Any faults or cracks in a sample constitute a boundary, which results in

partial reflection of the incident ultrasonic pulse. Knowing the speed of
ultrasound in the sample means that the depth of each crack can be
calculated. This is done by halving the time taken between the generation of
the pulse and the reception of the reflected signal, and multiplying by the
speed of ultrasound in the sample. Thus, using an EMAT, it is possible to
build up a profile of the interior of a sample without having to damage or
deform it in any way.

As well as cracks in the interior, ultrasound will be reflected off the exterior
boundaries of samples, meaning that the technique can also be used to
calculate the thickness of samples. This is particularly useful when calculating
the thickness of metal pipes, as the pipe does not have to be opened up or
even empty for it to be tested. This is especially useful when dealing with
pipes that are operational 24 hours a day - blockages, corrosion and other
problems can be tested for and located without stopping the flow.

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References:

1. Norton, Harry “Handbook of Transducers”, Prentice hall, 1989.

2. Allocca, John, Stuart Allen, “Transducers: Theory & Applications”,
Reston, 1984
3. http://www.wtec.org/loyola/opto/c6_s4.htm
4. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-transducers.htm

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