Experiment 9

Aim:
 To understand the construction and working mechanism of CRO.
 To perform amplitude, frequency, and phase measurements using a calibrated cathode ray
oscilloscope and to make use of Lissajous figures for phase and frequency measurements.
Apparatus: CRO, connecting leads, function generator.
Theory:
The cathode ray oscilloscope (CRO) is a type of electrical instrument which is used for showing
the measurement and analysis of waveforms and others electronic and electrical phenomenon. It
is a very fast X-Y plotter shows the input signal versus another signal or versus time.
The CROs are used to analyse the waveforms, transient, phenomena, and other time-
varying quantities from a very low-frequency range to the radio frequencies.
Construction
The main parts of the cathode ray oscilloscope are as follows.
1. Cathode Ray Tube
2. Electronic Gun Assembly
3. Deflecting Plate
4. Fluorescent Screen For CRT
5. Glass Envelop
1. Cathode Ray Tube
The cathode ray tube is the vacuum tube which converts the electrical signal into the visual
signal. It mainly consists of an electron gun and the electrostatic deflection plates (vertical and
horizontal).The electron gun produces a focused beam of the electron which is accelerated to
high frequency.
The vertical deflection plate moves the beams up and down and the horizontal beam moved the
electrons beams left to right. These movements are independent to each other and hence the beam
may be positioned anywhere on the screen.
2. Electronic Gun Assembly
The electron gun emits the electrons and forms them into a beam. The electron gun mainly
consists a heater, cathode, a grid, a pre-accelerating anode, a focusing anode and an accelerating
anode. For gaining the high emission of electrons at the moderate temperature, the layers of
barium and strontium is deposited on the end of the cathode.
After the emission of an electron from the cathode grid, it passes through the control grid. The
control grid is usually a nickel cylinder with a centrally located co-axial with the CRT axis. It
controls the intensity of the emitted electron from the cathode.
The electron while passing through the control grid is accelerated by a high positive potential
which is applied to the pre-accelerating or accelerating nodes.
 The electron beam is focused on focusing electrodes and then passes through the vertical and
horizontal deflection plates and then goes on to the fluorescent lamp. The pre-accelerating and
accelerating anode are connected to 1500v, and the focusing electrode is connected to 500 v.
There are two methods of focusing on the electron beam. These methods are
 Electrostatic focusing
 Electromagnetic focusing.
The CRO uses an electrostatic focusing tube.
3. Deflecting Plate
The electron beam after leaving the electron gun passes through the two pairs of the deflecting
plate. The pair of plate producing the vertical deflection is called a vertical deflecting plate or
Y plates, and the pair of the plate which is used for horizontal deflection is called horizontal
deflection plate or X plates.
4. Fluorescent Screen for CRT
The front of the CRT is called the face plate. It is flat for screen sized up to about
100mm×100mm. The screen of the CRT is slightly curved for larger displays. The face plate
is formed by pressing the molten glass into a mould and then annealing it.
The inside surface of the faceplate is coated with phosphor crystal. The phosphor converts
electrical energy into light energy. When an electronics beam strike phosphor crystal, it raises
their energy level and hence light is emitted during phosphorous crystallisation. This
phenomenon is called fluorescence.
5. Glass Envelope
It is a highly evacuated conical shape structure. The inner surface of the CRT between the neck
and the screen is coated with the aquadag. The aquadag is a conducting material and act as a
high-voltage electrode. The coating surface is electrically connected to the accelerating anode
and hence help the electron to be the focus.
Working: When the electron is injected through the electron gun, it passes through the control
grid.
The control grid controls the intensity of electron in the vacuum tube. If the control grid has high
negative potential, then it allows only a few electrons to pass through it. Thus, the dim spot is
produced on the lightning screen. If the negative potential on the control grid is low, then the bright
spot is produced. Hence the intensity of light depends on the negative potential of the control grid.
After moving the control grid the electron beam passing through the focusing and accelerating
anodes. The accelerating anodes are at a high positive potential and hence they converge the beam
at a point on the screen.
After moving from the accelerating anode, the beam comes under the effect of the deflecting
plates. When the deflecting plate is at zero potential, the beam produces a spot at the centre. If the
voltage is applied to the vertical deflecting plate, the electron beam focuses at the upward and
when the voltage is applied horizontally the spot of light will be deflected horizontally.

Amplitude, Phase and Frequency Measurement

Measurement of Voltage Using CRO
A voltage can be measured by noting the Y deflection produced by the voltage; using this
deflection in conjunction with the Y-gain setting, the voltage can be calculated as follows:
V = (no. of boxes in cm.) x (selected Volts/cm scale)
Measurement of Current and Resistance Using a CRO:
Using the general method, a correctly calibrated CRO can be used in conjunction with a known
value of resistance R to determine the current I flowing through the resistor.
Measurement of Frequency Using a CRO:
A simple method of determining the frequency of a signal is to estimate its periodic time from
the trace on the screen of a CRT. However, this method has limited accuracy, and should only
be used where other methods are not available. To calculate the frequency of the observed signal,
one has to measure the period, i.e. the time taken for 1 complete cycle, using the calibrated sweep
scale. The period could be calculated by
T = (no. of squares in cm) x (selected Time/cm scale)
Once the period T is known, the frequency is given by
f (Hz) = 1/T(sec)
Measurement of Phase:
The calibrated time scales can be used to calculate the phase shift between two sinusoidal signals
of the same frequency. If a dual trace or beam CRO is available to display the two signals
simultaneously (one of the signals is used for synchronization), both of the signals will appear
in proper time perspective and the amount of time difference between the waveforms can be
measured.
This, in turn can be utilized to calculate the phase angle *, between the two signals.
 Figure1: Phase shift between two signals

Referring to figure 1, the phase shift can be calculated by the formula; Phase shift in cm.
θ = Phase shift in cm. x 360 o
One period in cm.
Note that the calculation does not involve the actual calibrated Time base setting. In fact, the
observed waveforms can be varied using the horizontal amplifier venire adjustment to obtain as
many boxes for one full scale as desired. Another method for fast calculation is to multiply the
scale factor by the phase difference (in cm) where the scale factor is degrees per box or degrees
per cm.
Use of Lissajous Patterns to Calculate Phase Shift:
Lissajous patterns are obtained on the scope simultaneously by applying the two sinusoidal inputs
to be compared at the vertical and horizontal channels. The phase shift is then determined using
measured values taken from resulting Lissajous pattern. This pattern on the CRT screen may be
either a straight line or a circle or an ellipse depending on the amount of phase shift.
Figure 2 shows the resulting closed curve if the phase shift is between and. This pattern is an
ellipse (inclined at if the two amplitudes are the same). The angle of inclination at which the
ellipse is generated is of no importance in the phase angle calculation. Noting that the vertical
signal amplitude at instant 1 is
N = ASin (θ), θ can be computed by
θ = 180o - sin-1(N / M)
 Figure 2: Lissajous Pattern

Phase angels between 0o - 90o, the ellipse has a positive slope and angle calculated by the following
formula: θ = sin-1(N / M)
The actual scale settings do not change the ratio (N/M). Hence try to get an ellipse of maximum
possible size on the CRO for increased accuracy. For phase angles of 90 o 180 o, the ellipse has a
negative slope and the angle calculated by the above method must be subtracted from 180 o to
obtain the phase shift. Phase angles between 180 o - 270 o result in Lissajous patterns similar to
those for θ : 90 o -180 o, and cannot be directly distinguished. One technique for determining, if
the phase shift is less or more than 180 o, is to add an extra slight phase shift to the signal Vv. If
the phase angle measured increases, then the angle is less than 180o. If it decreases, the angle is
greater than 180o. Figure 3 shows how to compute the required phase angle.

θ = 180 - sin-1(N/M) θ = sin-1(N/M)

II I

III IV
θ = 180+ sin-1(N/M-1) θ = 360 - sin-1(N/M-1)

Figure 3 Phase angle calculation in 4 quadrants

Use of Lissajous Patterns for Frequency Measurements:
If a well calibrated CRO Timebase is not available, a signal generator can be used to measure the
frequency of an unknown sinusoidal signal. It is connected to the vertical channel (or horizontal)
and the calibrated signal source is fed to the horizontal channel (or vertical). The frequency of the
signal generator is adjusted so that a steady Lissajous pattern is obtained. The Lissajous pattern
can be very involved to analyze. However, for the frequency measurement, all that is needed is
the number of tangencies (points at the edge of arcs) along the vertical and horizontal lines.
The frequency relationship between the horizontal and vertical inputs is given by:
Fh / Fv = No. of tangencies (vertical) / No. of tangencies (horizontal)
from which fv, the unknown frequency can be calculated.
 Experiment 10
Aim: To study the measurement of Self-Inductance by Maxwell’s inductance capacitance Bridge.
Apparatus: Portable Maxwell’s bridge kit, voltmeter, various electronics components, Digital
Multimeter, Connecting leads.
Theory: Maxwell’s capacitance bridge
In this bridge, an inductance is measured by comparison with a standard variable capacitance. The
connection is shown in Figure below:

Fig 1: Circuit diagram for Maxwell's Bridge Phasor diagram for the circuit shown in Figure 1

Here,
L = Unknown Inductance,
R4 = Effective resistance of unknown Inductance coil,
R1, R2, R3 = Known non inductive resistance,
C1 = Standard variable capacitor.
The balance equation for the branch can be written as:
(R4 + jωL) ∗ (R1 + jωC1R1) = R2R3
R1R4 + jωL.R1 = R2R3 + jωR2R3C1R1
Equating the real and imaginary parts,
R4 = R2R3R1 (1)
L = R2R3C1 (2)

Two variables R1 and C1 which appear in one of the two balance equations (i.e. equation (1) and
(2)) and hence the two equations are independent.
The expression for Q factor can be written as:
Q = ωLR4 = ωC1R1