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I need a reference circuit for 4_wire the impedance measurement using AD5934, range 50 to 250 ohm.

Category: Hardware
Product Number: AD5934

I saw the reference design file CN0349 and CN0217, I think both are 2-wire implementation of the AD5P3x family IC. Can I get the circuit reference for the 4-wire implementation, with impedance range of 50 to 250 ohm. 

Help will be highly appreciated. 

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  • Before getting into the weeds with the frequency, when you say Vin voltage, do you mean RFB voltage? From the screenshot we know the raw Re and Im  values, but what were  the raw Re and Im values when you connected the calibration resistor of 100 Ohms? Also, is the software that calculates the impedance something you wrote?  

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  • Yes, I am checking the signal on RFB resistor. 

    For 100 Ω the Re is 3113 and Im is 4171.

    I wrote the software for this part. 

  • For 100 Ω the Re is 3113 and Im is 4171.

    Output log shown in pic below.

  • The suspicion is that your code thinks that the output is inversely proportional to the impedance under test - which is correct when the AD5934 does not have the 4-wire analog circuits between Vout and Vin. With this 4-wire circuit the output is directly proportional to the impedance under test.

    In abstract sense the circuit is converting the impedance into integers in the Re and im registers that constitute complex output Re + j*Im. The conversion factor  between physical Ohms and counts in those registers can be viewed as complex gain G. This complex gain can be calibrated with a known resistor: resistor impedance has only real component and zero imaginary component, so Zcal = 100 + j*0 Ohm. The correspondent output is Outcal = Re + j*Im = 3113 + j*4171 = G * (100 + j*0) Ohm, so G = (3113 + j*4171 ) / ((100 + j*0) Ohm). The "unknown" impedance Zx produces output,  which is proportional to Zx: Outx = 3400 + j*4574 = G * Zx, so Zx = Outx / G = (3400 + j*4574)*(100 + j*0) Ohm / (3113 + j*4171)  109.5 + j*0.21 Ohm. As expected from a resistor, the imaginary component is nearly zero. The real component is 109.5 Ohms, which is a bit far from the expected 120 Ohm, but it could still be within manufacturing tolerance of both the resistors used for calibration and as the "unknown."

  • With this 4-wire circuit the output is directly proportional to the impedance under test.

    Yes, I missed that point. Now I am getting 109 Ω when measuring 120 Ω. 

    The real component is 109.5 Ohms, which is a bit far from the expected 120 Ohm, but it could still be within manufacturing tolerance of both the resistors used for calibration and as the "unknown."

    I ordered more resistors (different values) I will calibrate and measure a bunch of different resistors. 

    Thanks once again.

  • Yes, it would be great if you could find some 0.1% or better yet 0,05% resistors. Only avoid wire wound type - those may have too much inductance for AC measurements.

  • I did test and calibrate using different resistor values. I noted that the measurement accuracy is better near the calibrated resistance value. I think this is not a problem, this I can improve using some tricks.

  • The problem now I face, is, when I use 4 wires and short 2 wires together (T1 with R1 and T2 with R2) see the picture.

    In this case I can get reading. See the pictures as a reference.

    4 wires, 2 wires short together.

    This is the waveform in the saline water.

    But, WHEN I use for wires or electrodes separated from each other, then the behavior changes completely. I can not get any proper reading. please. check the pictures below.

    This is 4 wires, first (white) and last (brown) are T1 and T2. Second (Blue) and  third (black) are R1 and R2 (R stands for receiver)

    This is the acquire waveform,

    Saline water is used in both cases, with conductivity of 7.37 mS/cm.

    Can you help with this.

    Thanks

     

  • wires or electrodes separated from each other

    I am not sure it is possible to separate the excitation wire Tn from the corresponding sensing wire Rn when in saline - it is going to break the DC working point of your circuit. Roughly speaking, the wires in saline are not galvanically connected to each other due to polarization layer forming at the interface. Very crudely, you can think of it as a capacitor between the wire surface and bulk saline, so the equivalent circuit approximating corresponding behavior would be something like this:

      So, the sensing side of your circuit does not have any DC coupling to the rest of the circuit and your INAMP inputs are hanging at whatever voltage these capacitors are charged to by the input pin currents and leakages. On the excitation side this polarization "capacitance" would break the DC feedback loop for U2, that is why some kind of R11 is necessary.

  • I will add a capacitor on each Rn wires. This might block DC values.