APPARATUS FOR TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION IN A DIGITAL DATA HANDLING SYSTEM

Abstract: Temperature compensation in a digital data handling system uses a digital temperature compensation for produc­ ing a digital word modification for an input to a temperature sensitive digital to analog converter (6). The temperature affecting the digital data handling system is sensed and produces a digital temperature representation which is used by the digital computer to produce an output signal in accordance with a characterization equation in the form of Output = f(D, M) where D = digital data and M = f (temperature). The temperature stability of the digital data handling system is affected by the temperature stability of a reference voltage circuit (8, 10, 11) used in the digital-to-­ analog converter and having a voltage reference diode (8). A compensation circuit (29) uses a temperature sensor in the form of a second diode (28), which is thermally coupled to the reference diode (8), and a tracking type analog-to-digital converter (30-42) for converting an analog signal. The output of the analog-to-digital converter is a count stored in the counter (38) and is supplied as a digital word to a digital computer (1) which uses the digital word to modify a digital input signal to the digital-to-analog converter (6).

Description: The invention relates to compensating temperature influences on a digital data handling system according to the first part of claim 1. A particular type of data handling system and means for partially compensating temperature influences is known from GB-A 21 13 849, where a 2-wire differential pressure transmitter comprises a pressure sensor having a pressure-sensitive element for converting a change in a measured pressure into a resistance change to produce an electrical signal indicative of the pressure change. A temperature detector includes a temperature-sensitive element disposed in the vicinity of the pressure-sensitive element for generating an electric signal indicative of a change in ambient temperature of the pressure-sensitive element. A memory stores data on the relationship of the electrical signal from the pressure sensor with respect to the pressure and the ambient temperature. An analog-to-digital converter is alternatively connected to the output of the temperature sensor and of the pressure sensor and alternately supplies to a digital computer a digital representation of the measured temperature and of the measured pressure. The computer responsive to the electric signals from the pressure sensor and the temperature detector reads data out of the memory and computes from those data and digital signals a temperature-compensated digital output signal which in turn is converted into an analog signal by a digital-to-analog converter and is supplied to a 2-wire transmission line. This system, therefore, compensates for temperature changes influencing the pressure sensor. The present invention takes into account that changes of the ambient temperature do not only influence the sensor element for the measured physical condition such as temperature, but also may influence the digital data handling system itself. Based on a digital data handling system as described in GB-A 21 13 849, the invention solves the above-mentioned problem by the features as characterized in claim 1. The temperature sensor in this case is exposed to the actual temperature of the data handling system and therewith provides a temperature-dependent signal, which, in combination with a stored characterization equation, is used for compensating any influences which temperature changes may have on the operation of the data handling system itself. Preferred embodiments and modifications are described in the dependent claims. A better understanding of the present invention may be had when the following detailed description is read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of a digital data handling apparatus embodying an example of the present invention and Figure 2 is a block diagram of an application of the digital data handling apparatus shown in Figure 1 for use in a pressure transmitter. Referring to Figure 1 in more detail, there is shown a digital data handling apparatus having a digital computer 1 connected to a non-volatile memory 2 and a computer input 3. The computer 1 is connected by a data bus 4 to a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 6. A reference diode 8, e.g., a Zener diode, and a resistor 10 are connected in series across a source of voltage +V and a junction 11 therebetween is connected to the digital-to-analog converter 6 to supply a voltage reference thereto. The analog output of the digital-to-analog converter 6 is supplied through an amplifier 12 to an analog output terminal 14. The data bus 4 is also connected to a bus driver 16 which is used to apply a temperature representative digital word to the data bus 4. The digital word from the bus driver 16 is obtained from a tracking analog-to-digital (A/D) converter 18 utilizing a resistor ladder 20 connected between a source of voltage +V and a ground or common return. The output of the resistor ladder 20 is obtained from junctions between serially connected resistors forming the resistor ladder 20 and is selected by a switch assembly 22. The output of the switch assembly is connected to a first input of a signal comparator 24 to supply a first input signal thereto. A second input signal for the comparator 24 is obtained from the junction between a resistor 26 and a temperature sensitive diode 28 in a temperature sensitive diode circuit 29. The resistor 26 and the diode 28 are connected in series between the source of voltage +V and ground. The output of the comparator 24 is connected directly to a first input of a first AND gate 30 and through a logical inverter 32 to a first input to a second AND gate 34. The second inputs of the first and second AND gates 30, 34 are connected to a source of clock signals 36 having a frequency which controls the updating of digital word supplied to the bus driver 16. The outputs of the first and second AND gates 30, 34 are connected to control the counting direction of an up/down counter 38. The output of the up/down counter 38 representative of a count stored in the counter 38 is connected to a data bus 40 for application as an input to a decoder 42 and to the bus driver 16. The output of the decoder 42 is applied to the switch assembly 22 to control its resistor ladder output selecting operation. During hot/cold testing of the digital data handling apparatus, a characterization equation, which describes the temperature performance of the digital data handling apparatus including the digital-to-analog converter 6 as a function of the digital representation of environmental temperature, i.e., Output = f(D,M) where D = digital data and M = f(temperature), is stored in the computer memory 2. The characterization equation may be developed by a testing computer using a conventional curve fitting technique using samples, e.g., four, of the output from the converter 6 for a known data word at corresponding digital representations of the test temperatures. Since the resulting characterization equation can then be used to handle the digital data input word from the computer input 3 to the computer 1 in light of the effect of temperature on the analog output of the converter 6, i.e., the output of the digital data handing apparatus, it is used to compensate the output of the digital computer 1 before the computer output is applied to the converter 6. Thus, the compensating temperature representative digital word from the digital compensation system, i.e., the A/D converter 18, is periodically sampled, e.g., once a minute, to update the temperature compensation data word, i.e, M, used in the characterization equation stored in the memory 2. The digital output from the computer 1 is accordingly modified to produce a compensated analog data output signal from the D/A converter 6. In other words, the method of operation of the compensation system is based on converting the voltage drop across the temperature sensitive diode 28 to a digital word by the analog-to-digital converter 18. This digital word is applied to the data bus 4 for use by the digital computer 1 during the use of the stored characterization equation in handling the digital input data from the computer input 3 to modify the operation of the D/A converter 6. Thus, the analog output signal appearing at the output terminal 14 is compensated for the effect of environmental temperature on the digital handling apparatus which includes the operation of the digital-to-analog converter 6 and the reference diode 8. The analog-to-digital converter 18 operates by using the switch assembly 22 to select a voltage from the resistor ladder 20 approximately equal to the output of the temperature sensitive diode circuit. The comparator 24 is used to sense the difference between the resistor ladder output and the temperature sensitive diode circuit 29 and to change its output signal polarity as a representation of the identity of the higher comparator input signal. The comparator output signal is used to operate one of the AND gates 30, 34 depending on its polarity which, in turn, operates the counting direction of the counter 38. Since the output of the counter 38 is decoded by the decoder 42 and is used to control the setting of the switching assembly 22, the comparator output signal is effective to produce a variation in the output of the resistor ladder 20 in a direction to match the output of the temperature sensitive diode circuit 29. Thus, the count output of the counter 38 is a digital word that represents the temperature induced variations on the output of the temperature sensitive diode circuit 29. The output of the counter is, accordingly, supplied over bus driver 16 as the digital word M to be used in the computation of the digital output from the digital computer 1. In Figure 2, there is shown a block diagram of a digital data handling apparatus embodying the method of the present invention for use in a pressure transmitter application. In this application, the data input to the digital computer 1 is obtained from a pressure sensor 50 having its analog output converted by an analog-to-digital converter 52 to a digital signal. The characterization equation stored in the memory 2 is then used by the digital computer 1 to modify the digital output representative of the detected pressure before the digital signal is converted by the digital-to-analog converter 6 to an analog signal in a suitable analog signal range as used in the process control industry, e.g., 4 to 20 mA.

Claims: A digital data handling system comprising: a) a data input (3) for receiving digital data; b) a digital computer (1) for calculating a digital output signal at its output; c) a digital-to-analog converter (6) for converting the digital output signal of the computer (1) into an analog output signal for the system at its system output (14); d) a temperature sensor (29) responsive to ambient temperature; e) a memory (2) associated with the digital computer (1) and containing a characterization equation which is a function of the temperature measured by said sensor (29); wherein f) the digital computer (1) is adapted for computing an output signal in accordance with said characterization equation; and g) temperature compensating means (18, 29) including an analog-to-digital converter (18) providing a digital representation of the output signal of said temperature sensor (29), which digital representation is used in computing the output signal of the computer, characterized in that h) the temperature sensor (29) is exposed to the temperature of the data handling system; i) the digital-to-analog converter (6) includes a reference diode (8) having an output signal affected by said temperature; j) said compensating means (18, 28, 29) includes a second diode (28) in thermal association with said reference diode (8) to produce an output signal affected by said temperature; and k) the analog-to-digital converter (18) converts the output signal of said second diode (28) into said digital representation of said temperature. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the analog-to-digital converter (18) includes: a) a counter (38) providing a digital word corresponding to the sensed temperature; and b) a comparator (24) for comparing the voltage across the second diode (28) with a selectable voltage across a voltage divider (20) and for supplying an increment signal or decrement signal to the counter (38) depending on the result of said comparison. The system according to claim 2, characterized by a switch assembly (2) for selecting a voltage at the voltage divider (20) which corresponds to the voltage across the second diode (28), said switch assembly being controlled by an output signal of the counter (38). The system according to one of the claims 1 to 3. characterized in that the memory (2) is a non-volatile memory storing the characterization equation in the form of Output = f(D,M), where D is a digital input data and M is the digital temperature representation in the form of M = f(temperature). The system according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data input (3) of the computer (1) is adapted for receiving digital data in the form of a digital pressure representation supplied by a pressure transmitter.

Inventors: BOZARTH, THEODORE B., JR., OLSEN, ARTHUR M., ROWLANDS, RONALD H.
Applicants: HONEYWELL INC.
Application year: 1984
Main classification: G06F1
IPC codes: G01L19, H03M1, G08C25, G06J1, G01D3