9212_002-721e-07.22
Load cells - high impedance, charge mode
Page 14
A simplied equivalent diagram of the accelerometer, input
cable and charge amplier is shown in Fig. 3.
Two circuit features of the charge amplier play key roles. Cr
is a range capacitor bridging the amplier input and output.
Rt is the insulation resistance of that capacitor. This value is
range switch selectable as indicated in Fig. 3.
Neglecting resistance momentarily, the level of output voltage
Vo is equal to the amount of charge produced by the load cell
divided by the capacitance of the feedback or range capacitor
Cr.
In actual operation, the range capacitor value in Fig. 3 is
adjusted by a charge amplier control labeled as range. For
the remainder of this discussion, the capacitor will be called
the "range capacitor."
The charge amplier essentially acts as a charge integrator,
which compensates the load cell’s charge with a charge of
equal magnitude and opposite polarity in order to ultimately
produce a voltage across the range capacitor. Resultingly,
a high impedance charge is converted to a low impedance
voltage.
As stated above, the charge integration process is aected
with a charge of the same magnitude and opposite polarity.
Thus, a negative charge at the amplier’s input is converted
to a positive output voltage. This is why charge mode sensors
are typically indicated with a negative output.
For simplicity sake, the resistive eects have not been consi-
dered. As shown in Fig. 3, the familiar capacitive-resistive
network is bridging the amplier input to the output. Due to
this network, a time constant is introduced into the discharge
rate of the range capacitor. Time constant is dened as the
discharge time of an AC coupled circuit. In a period of time
equivalent to one time constant, a step input will decay to
37 % of its original value. Therefore, the time constant (TC)
of a charge amplier is simply:
TC = Rt CT
The rst of two undesirable inuences on charge ampli-
er output is this time constant capacitor discharge rate.
The second inuence is drift. Drift, as dened here, is the
undesirable change in output signal level over time which
is not a function of the measured variable. Drift in a charge
amplier is caused by a low insulation resistance Ri at the
input or by internal leakage current of the input MOSFET or
JFET.