1 Overview

In this study we looked at the effects of grounding and EMI in electrical systems. Besides a simple study
of these problems we also investigated solutions to noise reduction, which is important for the performance
of sensitive measuring equipment (e.g. medical applications). Our experimental results revealed that the
addition of noise (DC Bias or 60Hz) into the circuit lowered the amplifier gain as the amplitude of the
sinusoidal input increased. This makes sense, as the circuit is then amplifying both the signal and noise
simultaneously. Our correction to this problem, a differential amplifier, proved to be effective in reducing
noise in the output signal. In fact, our results similar in comparison to the unbiased clean signal. We
also noted the effect of EMI on the signal. Once again this proved to distort the clean signal due to the
potentials induced by the EM waves.

2 Introduction
The main focus of this laboratory is to study both the effects of ground current and electromagnetic interference on circuit performance and how to alleviate this. The introduction of ground currents into a system
can produce noise in an output signal as well as having other undesired effects. There are many ways that
one can correct for these anomilies, and one popular method in particular is through the use of a differential
amplifier. This type of circuit acts as a filter to separate noise (known as common mode) from signal (or differential moe) thus allowing only the desired signal to pass. The measure of a differential amplifiers ability
to do this is called the Common Mode Rejection Ratio or CMMR, measured in dB. For high performance
amplifiers this ratio is quite high, over 100 dB.

3 Procedure, Theory, and Results

3.1 Materials
Item
HP Oscillator
Protoboard
LM741 Operational Amplifier
1k Resistor
100k Resistor
50 Resistor
Interference Light Bulb
Variable DC Power Supply
Oscilloscope
Bench +/- 12 V DC Power Supply
Fluke Digital Voltmeter
Table 1: Equipment list

Quantity
1
2
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
1
2

3.2 Procedure and Discussion

3.2.1 1000 Hz Oscillation without a ground current
For this portion of the experiment we connected the oscillator, through a voltage divider, to a single ended
inverting amplifier, as shown in figure 1. The voltage divider was used to maintain better control of the
voltage in the millivolt range.

Figure 1: Single-ended operational amplifier

As the voltage was raised from 0 to 100 mV measurements of the gain were taken. From basic circuit
theory, we note that the gain of an inverting amplifier should be,

Rf
Ri

(1)

In this calculation R f is the feedback resistor and Ri is the input. Thus for the values shown in figure 1,
we should expect a gain of roughly 100.
As shown in figure 3 we that experimentally, we have a good comparison of the gain to theoretical
results. However, we note a leveling off of the curves in both the G versus Vi and Vo versus Vi , figure 2. This
is due to the saturation of the the output of the op-amp, hence the amplifier is operating in the non-linear
region. We have reached the maximum output of the device.
3.2.2 1000 Hz Oscillation with a .6A ground current
To begin with we connect a portable DC power supply up to the bench system. This is done by shorting the
power supply to the ground with a jumper from one active terminal to the ground plug. The other active
3

Figure 2: Observed values of Vout versus Vin under various noise conditions

terminal is sent into the oscillator, which is connected to the bench ground. Hence we have a loop in which
current can circulate around the bench system.
Since the ground current is flowing through wires with a finite resistance a potential formed. This
potential now floats the ground of the circuit above the actual ground of the bench. We expect to see the
signal put out by the oscillator to be shifted up from the ground by this potential. Hence, this shift will cause
the amplifier to saturate at lower voltages.
As seen in figures 2 and 3, that is exactly what happened. The curve showing the .6A bias saturated at a
lower potential in comparison to the 1000 Hz signal with no induced ground current.
3.2.3 Injection of a 60 Hz ground current
To inject an AC signal into the ground loop, we replace the DC supply with the light bulb provided. This
bulb takes current going into the light and puts it into the bench ground system. Thus we superimpose an
AC signal onto our oscillator signal. We changed the oscillator signal to approximately 60 Hz. The signal
now pulsates as we vary the oscillator frequency off of 60 Hz.
From a 100 Watt light bulb, we should expect to see a current of approximately .833A. This was obtained
from the power expression,
P

VI

(2)

which should produce a larger gain drop than with the previous ground loop.
Upon measurement we see that the gain and output voltage saturate (see figure 2 and 3) only slightly
quicker than that of the non-ground current study. This was due to the measurement technique involved.
4

Figure 3: Observed values of G

Vout
Vin

versus Vin under various noise conditions

The RMS amplitude of a 60 Hz signal oscillates on the meter, so accurate measurements were difficult to
obtain. This also produced some anomalous readings such as the gain increase as input voltage decreased.
A more accurate way would be to simply use a LabView VI to collect measurements over an interval of time
and make and RMS measurement based off of the data.
3.2.4 Clean ground connection
To try to reduce noise in the line, we can ground protoboard 1 (voltage divider) to protoboard 2 (amplifier)
instead of using the oscillator ground. Thus the two boards share the same ground connection. However, the
input voltage into the amplifier, Vi is not referenced to the board ground.
This can be a problem since the amplifier and divider circuit are connected by there own ground which
is floating above the ground of the oscillator. At high frequencies the two ground planes may couple to on
another by capacitive coupling. Which will cause noise and interference also this type of grounding could
cause dangerous amounts of voltages to build up between the two planes.
In our results this seemed to cause more harm than good and resulted in a gain curve that reduced
quicker than most. This could be caused by the fact that the oscillator signal was still biased by a voltage in
the ground loop and interference may have formed between the two ground planes.

3.3 Differential Amplifier Application

The addition of a differential amplifier to the circuit, as shown in figure 4, was used to reduce noise in the
output signal.

Figure 4:

We assembled this with the true ground reference on protoboard 2 and used the oscillator signal from
the voltage divider on protoboard 1. This signal is considered Vi on figure 4. We have connected up, once
again, a .6A ground current using the portable DC power supply.
From amplifier theory, we know that the gain of the differential amplifier will be,
vo

Rf
vi
Ri

100vi

(3)

However, vi is actually the difference of the potential across the inverting and non-inverting inputs. In
our case this difference is the oscillator signal, with out the noise signal added. Thus, we expect only the
signal to be amplified and not the noise. Another way to look at this is that the ground potential or common
mode voltage, Vcm is the same for both inputs, see figure 5. Thus, the taking difference in the two input
signals cancels this common mode voltage out.
The measurements of figures 2 and 3 confirm this result as the gain curves are the same for both the
differential amplifier and the 1000 Hz oscillator with no ground current.
To measure the common mode voltage and its gain ( cm ) we will need to set the inverting and noninverting inputs of the differential amplifier to the same potential. To do this, we short the two inputs.
Now we can measure the common mode voltage between the protoboard 2 ground and either input to the
amplifier. Since the output of the amplifier is not effected by the common mode voltage we expect the cm
to be small. We can measure this by simply measuring the voltage output of the amplifier with the inputs
shorted. Our results are stated in table 2.
The CMRR is the measure of how well an amplifier can reject the noise signal. This can be calculated
by means of a formula and is expressed in dB.

Figure 5: Schematic of a differential amplifier showing vcm and vdm

Voltage
Vcm
Vdm (RMS)

Input
.313
.053

Output
-.046
5.03

Gain
.147
95.8

Table 2: Measured results for common and differential gains

CMRR

20log

Gdm
Gcm

(4)

For a LM741 this should be around 70 dB. Using the Measured data of table 2 we see that the experimental value is 56 dB. Considering measurement error, this is a reasonable value.

3.4 EMI
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) can be introduced into the circuit by means of creating a wire loop. We
begin increasing the length of the wire and arranging them in such a way that they create a loop. When
electromagnetic radiation interacts with the wire it will induce a voltage. This voltage is time varying and
will change the potential between the two inputs, creating noise on the output. This is due to the fact that
the amplifier perceives this as a signal not as noise. This was observed experimentally.

4 Conclusions
We have seen that the noise in both the grounding and via radiated interference can play a major role in
circuit performance. Our experimental results revealed that the addition of noise (DC Bias or 60Hz) into
the circuit lowered the amplifier gain as the amplitude of the sinusoidal input increased. This makes sense,
as the circuit is then amplifying both the signal and noise simultaneously. We have seen that solutions to
the problem of noise reduction are the use of differential amplifiers, to correct for common mode potentials.
For EMI the use of twisted pair wires or shielded coaxial cables will provide the best protection against
interference.