Simple wide frequency range impedance meter based on AD5933 integrated circuit

Abstract

As it contains elements of complete digital impedance meter, the AD5933 integrated circuit is an interesting solution for impedance measurements. However, its use for measurements in a wide range of impedances and frequencies requires an additional digital and analogue circuitry. This paper presents the design and performance of a simple impedance meter based on the AD5933 IC. Apart from the AD5933 IC it consists of a clock generator with a programmable prescaler, a novel DC offset canceller for the excitation signal based on peak detectors and a current to voltage converter with switchable conversion ratios. The authors proposed a simple method for choosing the measurement frequency to minimalize errors resulting from the spectral leakage and distortion caused by a lack of an anti-aliasing filter in the DDS generator. Additionally, a novel method for the AD5933 IC calibration was proposed. It consists in a mathematical compensation of the systematic error occurring in the argument of the value returned from the AD5933 IC as a result. The performance of the whole system is demonstrated in an exemplary measurement. Keywords: impedance, converter, AD5933, SoC, system on a chip, measurement