Instrumentation amplifier measurement errors

Brown and Skrebowski [37] first suggested the use of x-rays for particle size analysis and this resulted in the ICl x-ray sedimentometer [38,39]. In this instrument, a system is used in which the difference in intensity of an x-ray beam that has passed through the suspension in one half of a twin sedimentation tank, and the intensity of a reference beam which has passed through an equal thickness of clear liquid in the other half, produces an inbalance in the current produced in a differential ionization chamber. This eliminates errors due to the instability of the total output of the source, but assumes a good stability in the beam direction. Since this is not the case, the instrument suffers from zero drift that affects the results. The 18 keV radiation is produced by a water-cooled x-ray tube and monitored by the ionization chamber. This chamber measures the difference in x-ray intensity in the form of an electric current that is amplified and displayed on a pen recorder. The intensity is taken as directly proportional to the powder concentration in the beam. The sedimentation curve is converted to a cumulative percentage frequency using this proportionality and Stokes equation. 

Chemistry, and in particular physical and analytical chemistry, often requires a numerical or statistical approach. Not only is mathematical modelling an important aid to understanding, but computations are often needed to turn raw data into meaningful information or to compare them with other data sets. Moreover, calculations are part of laboratory routine, perhaps required for making up solutions of known concentration (see p. 170 and below) or for the calibration of an analytical instrument (see p. 171). In research, trial calculations can reveal what input data are required and where errors in their measurement might be amplified in the final result, e.g. flame atomic absorption spectrometer (see Chapter 27). Table 39.7 Sets of numbers and operations ... 

It has been assumed that the movement correlates to a sine function and the velocity to a cosine function. As this would lead to considerable integration errors the instrument referred to has been provided with a cosine corrector this corrects the measuring signal coming from the photomultiplier after it has been amplified. According to Ebel et al.17), however, the velocity of the oscillating movement corresponds to an entirely different function (formula and figure can be found in the... 

ISEs it is common practice to use potential measuring instruments with input impedances >10 Cl to ensure that there is no error in the potential measurement. Most modern pH/mV meters constructed with field-effect transistor-type input amplifiers fulfill this requirement. However, as the electrode surface area becomes smaller, the resistance of the ISE increases dramatically. Thus, for microsized electrodes, specially designed amplifier circuits with even higher input impedances are required to obtain accurate intracellular ion values and to help eliminate noise. In many instance, the micro-type measurements must also be made within the confines of a Faraday cage to reduce noise further by shielding the electrodes finm environmental noise. In automated clinical chemistry analyzers, confinement of the electrodes within the outer metal cabinet of the instrument serves a similar purpose. 

A comprehensive overview of frequency-domain DOT techniques is given in [88]. Particular instraments are described in [166, 347, 410]. It is commonly believed that modulation techniques are less expensive and achieve shorter acquisition times, whereas TCSPC delivers a better absolute accuracy of optical tissue properties. It must be doubted that this general statement is correct for any particular instrument. Certainly, relatively inexpensive frequency-domain instruments can be built by using sine-wave-modulated LEDs, standard avalanche photodiodes, and radio or cellphone receiver chips. Instruments of this type usually have a considerable amplitude-phase crosstalk". Amplitude-phase crosstalk is a dependence of the measured phase on the amplitude of the signal. It results from nonlinearity in the detectors, amplifiers, and mixers, and from synchronous signal pickup [6]. This makes it difficult to obtain absolute optical tissue properties. A carefully designed system [382] reached a systematic phase error of 0.5° at 100 MHz. A system that compensates the amplitude-phase crosstalk via a reference channel reached an RMS phase error of 0.2° at 100 MHz [370]. These phase errors correspond to a time shift of 14 ps and 5.5 ps RMS, respectively. 

Most transducers converting chemical concentration into an electrical signal have a nonlinear response for example, electrode potential and optical transmission are not directly proportional to concentration. In general, this nonlinearity is easily and simply corrected in equilibrium analytical measurements. However, it is considerably more difficult to instrumentally correct the response-versus-concentration function in reaction-rate methods, and often the correction itself can introduce significant errors in the analytical results. For example, the simple nonlinear feedback elements employed in log-response operational-amplifier circuits are not sufficiently accurate in transforming transmittance into absorbance to be used for many analytical purposes. 

The results reported in Stepanov et al. (1990b) led to suspect that some small differences between laboratories may be due to uncorrected differences in detector sensitivities or errors therein, at the laboratories using MIC/TIMS instruments. On commercial MIC/TIMS, a program measures the relative gains of the various amplifier chains. A program connecting a given amplifier chain sequentially with the various ion detectors, called virtual amplifier, corrects for differences between amplifier chains. Yet it is also necessary to measure the ratios of the ion capture efficiencies of the various cups or ion multipliers. This may be done by... 

Answer. This idea that single-beam instruments are better for quantitative analysis arises from the fact that a single-beam instrument measures beam intensity directly, while in a double-beam optical null instrument it is the movement of a comb that is amplified as a measurement of intensity. The comb must be made linear throughout the range in which it is used, otherwise it will not give a linear relation between the intensity and the comb movement, and this will lead to errors in intensity measurements. 

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