Liquid Helium Level Sensing Using Superconductivity at Low Temperature

Mayukh Nath

Undergraduate Programme Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

Under the guidance of

Prof. V. Venkataraman

Department of Physics Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

KVPY Summer Pro ject Report 2013

Abstract
An instrument to indicate the level of liquid helium in a Dewar was developed. This report describes the analog and digital components of the instrument in detail including the circuit diagrams, calibration curve and micro-controller code. Some of the key concepts and techniques used in the project like the role of superconductivity in helium level measurement, four probe method of resistance measurement, working of Analog-to-Digital Convertor (ADC) and Serial Peripheral Interface protocol have also been discussed.

Contents
Acknowledgments 1 Principle 2 Analog Module
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 3.1 3.2 Constant current source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 Basic circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.2 Constant current source for high voltages Four probe method of resistance measurement . . Measurement of high voltages . . . . . . . . . . . The `Overlling Eect' and its rectication . . . Safety Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Final circuit diagram for analog module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 3 5
5 5 6 7 8 8 8 9

3 Digital Module

3.3 3.4

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ADC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 Working of an ADC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 Specications of the ADC used . . . . . . . . 3.2.3 Advantages of using external ADC . . . . . . 3.2.4 Interfacing the ADC with micro-controller . . 3.2.5 Calibration to read high voltages using ADC LCD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Micro-controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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11 12 12 12 12 13 14 14 15

Possible Improvements Gallery Bibliography

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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people for their immense help and contribution to the project: 1. Prof. V. Venkataraman for guiding me throughout the course of the project 2. Debaditya Chatterjee for working with me on the project 3. Prof. M. K. Gunasekaran for his course UE-102 without which this project would have been impossible 4. My classmate Diptaparna Biswas, for many useful and timely inputs during the project 5. Doctoral students, Sandip Mondal and Aditya Narayan Roy Choudhury and other students for helping me out in the lab 6. My parents for their support and valuable suggestions 7. My friends Sayak Ghosh, Tamoghna Barik and S. Hamilton Samraj for their help and support Lastly, I should thank Atmel Studio , LYX, and the website www.circuitlab.com as I have used these software for the project and for preparing the report.

Chapter 1

Principle
Certain materials (eg NbTi/Cu) show superconductivity at temperatures below 10 K. Temperature of liquid helium is about 4 K, so these materials would be superconducting in contact with liquid helium. Exploiting this fact, a sensor made of NbTi/Cu and shaped like a wire is used to measure the level of liquid helium in a Dewar. When this sensor is placed in the Dewar as shown in Fig 1, the part of the sensor submerged in liquid helium becomes superconductor. The resistance of the sensor wire, thus becomes linearly dependent on the part of the sensor above liquid helium level. So by measuring the resistance of the sensor, the level of liquid helium in the Dewar can be calculated.

Figure 1: Schematic of the helium level sensor placed inside Dewar

Suppose the total length of the sensor is H , the resistance per unit length of the sensor is r and the measured resistance of the sensor isR, then the level of liquid helium is given by,

L=H

R r

Now, to measure the resistance of the sensor wire, four probe method of resistance measurement is used, and a constant current source, supplying 60 mA is built for that purpose.

Chapter 2

Analog Module
2.1 Constant current source
A constant-current source, as the same suggests supplies a constant current over a range of loads. A basic constant current source circuit is described in the following section, followed by its modication for higher voltages.

2.1.1 Basic circuit

Following is the schematic of a basic constant current source:

Figure 2: Basic constant current source

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The value of the supplied constant current is given by:

IConst =

Vref Rsense

Limitation
The above circuit can only supply constant current till a certain voltage across the load. The maximum voltage it can supply is limited by the maximum output of the Op-Amp which is typically 20-25 V. But for the project at hand a constant current source capable of supplying up to 35 V was needed. So some modications had to be made to the above design, as described in the following section.

2.1.2 Constant current source for high voltages

Figure 3: Constant current source for higher voltage across load

The above design is that of a constant current source capable of supplying high voltages as the Op-Amp only needs to supply sucient voltage to bias BJT1. The maximum voltage it can supply is now determined by Vcc. Vcc can be made as high as needed.

Further modication: eliminating oscillation

The above design has a drawback. Due to the presence of two transistors in the control loop, appearance of sustained sinusoidal oscillations is possible. So the constant current source may supply a large amount of undesired AC along with DC which aects the accuracy of the measurement. So to prevent this a capacitor is placed in parallel with the output of the constant current source as shown in the next page, which eliminates oscillations and stabilizes the output. 6

Figure 4: Modication for eliminating oscillation Note: The above design also has a small drawback. Due to the presence of the capacitor, the circuit takes some time to adjust the output voltage with change in the load. In other words, the response time of the circuit has increased due to the addition of the capacitor. But since the level of liquid He changes very slowly in the tank the high response time is not a problem.

2.2 Four probe method of resistance measurement

In this method of resistance measurement four probes are used, which are kept in contact with the sample whose resistance is to be measured, as shown in the gure:

Figure 5: Schematic of four probe resistance measurement

A constant current source is placed between probes 1 and 4. A high impedance voltmeter is placed between probes 2 and 3. As the current is constant, the voltage between 2 and 3 will vary linearly with the resistance of the sample. The 7

high input impedance of the voltmeter ensures that very little current ows between probes 2 and 3. So, the eect of the lead resistance of the probes, on the measurement, would be very little.

2.3 Measurement of high voltages

The measurement of voltages is carried out using an ADC with a 5 V reference (details are given in chapter 3). So more than 5 V cannot be given to the input of the ADC. But the voltage at the higher potential end of the load may go as high as 33 V. So for measuring the voltage of the high potential end of the load, the voltage is scaled down by a factor of 10, using an OpAmp and appropriate resistances before feeding it to the ADC. This scaled down value is sent to the micro-controller, where the software calculates the actual value of voltage before performing further calculations.

2.4 The `Overlling Eect' and its rectication

One practical diculty one faces in the construction of a liquid helium level indicator based on resistance measurements is that, sometimes the liquid helium cools some portion of the sensor above the liquid level to make it superconducting. Then the instrument reads a higher level than is actually present, leading to an `Overlling Eect'. To overcome this diculty, a small heating element is attached to the top of the sensor. Before measurement, a pulse of high current is passed through the current leads to heat the heater, thus making the portion of the sensor not immersed in helium normal conducting. The resistance measurement circuit sends a pulse of 90 mA for 4 seconds and then reads the resistance by sending a constant current of 60 mA. To achieve the change in current, a relay (controlled by a micro-controller) is used to change the sense resistance in the circuit to change the current as required.

2.5 Safety Measures

The following safety features were included in the circuit: An 1 A fuse is placed in series with the load to prevent any damage due to current surges A 50 V clamp diode is placed across the load in parallel to prevent any damage due to voltage surges

2.6 Final circuit diagram for analog module

Taking into account the above the points, a resistance measuring circuit which measures the resistance of the sensor by the four probe method, and takes care of the `Overlling Eect', was constructed. Also, for the project, voltage supplies of various values viz. 60 V, 30 V, 12 V and 5 V were required. A power supply module was constructed to supply the aforementioned voltages from a single 230 V AC supply. The circuit diagrams for the power supply module and the analog module are shown respectively.

Figure 6: Circuit diagram for power supply module

Figure 7: Circuit diagram for analog module

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Chapter 3

Digital Module
3.1 Overview
As described in the previous chapter, the analog module produces two output voltages  one corresponds two the voltage at the end of the sensor, and the other one is the voltage at the beginning of the sensor, reduced by a certain division factor. The function of the digital module is to detect these two voltages and further analyze them to actually display the level of liquid helium on screen. Along with this, the digital module also drives a switching assembly to switch the analog module between two current levels. Following is a block diagram of the working digital module:

Figure 8: Block diagram for digital module

As shown in the diagram, the key components of the digital module are  1. ADC (MCP 3202) 2. LCD (JHD 162A) 3. Micro-controller (Atmega32) Each of these components will be discussed in details in the following sections. 11

3.2 ADC
An Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) is a device that takes a voltage signal in a given range as input and gives a corresponding digital output. The analog module of the circuit produces two voltage signals. The micro-controller is supposed to analyze these signals and for that purpose, these analog voltage signals need to be converted into digital domain. The ADC is instrumental in carrying out this process.

3.2.1 Working of an ADC

To convert an analog voltage to digital signal, an ADC needs a reference voltage (VRef ). During conversion, it samples the input voltage (Vin ), and stores it in an internal capacitor. This process is called sample and hold. After that, ADC compares the stored voltage with the reference voltage, and outputs a digital value in the range of 0 to(2n 1), where n is the resolution of the ADC. If the input voltage is less than 0, the output is by default 0. Similarly for Vin > Vref , the output is always 2n 1. Otherwise, the output is given by -

Vin (2n 1) Vref

3.2.2 Specications of the ADC used

Model name: MCP3202 Manufacturer: Microchip Resolution: 12 bit Number of input channels: 2 Interfacing: SPI Reference voltage used: 5 V

3.2.3 Advantages of using external ADC

The micro-controller used in the digital module - AVR Armega32 itself possesses an internal ADC. However, this internal ADC is not used in the project, because of the following reasons  Limited resolution of internal ADC: The resolution of the internal ADC of Atmega32 is limited to 10 bit. However, for the level of precision desired from this project, an ADC with higher resolution is necessary. Using a 12 bit external ADC easily solved this issue.

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 Output from external ADC has less noise: The accuracy of the internal ADC is aected by many factors related to the micro-controller, including noise introduced due to CPU functioning, interrupts, power uctuation etc. Many of these factors are absent in the case of an external ADC, resulting a less noisy and more accurate output.

3.2.4 Interfacing the ADC with micro-controller

MCP3202 uses SPI protocol to communicate with the micro-controller. The SPI (serial peripheral interface) is a bus interface connection and is a widely used standard for serial communication. SPI uses only 4 pins: 1. Data in (SDI) or Master-out-slave-in (MOSI) 2. Data out (SDO) or Master-in-slave-out (MISO) 3. Shift clock (SCLK or SCK) 4. Chip enable (CE) or Chip select (CS)

Working of SPI
SPI communication involves two devices  namely master and slave devices. The master side has a clock generator that controls the communication. Slave side receives this clock via SCLK pin and the communication is synchronized. Also, each side has a shift register, 8 bits long.

Figure 9: SPI Architecture

To initiate communication, master side has to pull CE to high. SPI protocol dictates that while CE remains high, the master side has to send one bit data to the slave side and receive one bit data from the same, for each clock pulse. The data to be sent is to be previously stored in the shift registers of the sender. An incoming bit is stored in the shift register of the receiver by `shifting' the existing bits by one place. As the shift registers are 8 bit long, after 8 clock pulses the contents of the two shift registers are interchanged. 13

3.2.5 Calibration to read high voltages using ADC

Since the voltage at the high voltage end of the load is scaled down by a factor of 10 (approx.) before feeding to the ADC (as explained in section 2.3), some calibration was required to determine the exact conversion factor. The ADC output was plotted against the multimeter reading of the high voltage, and a linear t was performed. The following graph was obtained:

35 30 25
Voltage (V)

20 15
Equation y = a + b*x 0.01585

10 5 0 0 500 1000 1500

Residual Sum of Squares Pearson's r Adj. R-Square

1 1 Value Standard Error 0.00656 4.49539E-6

Intercept Slope

-0.01062 0.01214

2000

2500

3000

ADC Output

Figure 10: Experimentally obtained calibration curve

So the following equation was included in the micro-controller code to obtain the high voltage from the ADC reading,

V = 0.01214 r 0.01062
where V is the high voltage and r is the ADC output.

3.3 LCD
An LCD is used to display the level of liquid helium in the tank and the volume it corresponds to. Its model number is JHD 162A and it is a 162 dot matrix character LCD. It is controlled by the micro-controller via a 4 bit data bus.

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3.4 Micro-controller
An Atmega32 micro-controller is used in the project. The software for the microcontroller is written in AVR-C. It is programmed using USB-ISP programmer for AVR. The main functions of the micro-controller are: 1. Controlling the external ADC through SPI, reading data from it and performing the necessary calculations. 2. Controlling the LCD to display the values. 3. Controlling the current switching assembly of the analog module.

Code used for the micro-controller

#define F_CPU 11059200UL #include<avr/io.h> #include<util/delay.h> #include<string.h> #define #define #define #define #define MOSI PB5 SCK PB7 CS PB4 CS_HIGH() PORTB |= (1<<CS) CS_LOW() PORTB &= ~(1<<CS) //Initializes SPI //Sends data to ADC //Reads data from ADC /*Converts ADC output of the reduced voltage to the actual value*/ /*Inputs the helium level and returns the volume of liquid helium*/ //CPU frequency

void SPIinit(); unsigned int SPIwrite(unsigned int); unsigned int readExADC(unsigned int); float getHighVol(unsigned int adcVal); float getVolume(float height); #define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define #define void void void void LCDPORT PORTC LCDDDR DDRC rs PC3 en PC2 heater PC0 LO_VOL_OFF -14.0 SNSR_LN 101.6 SNSR_RES 4710.0 curr 60.2

//Lower voltage offset(mV) //Sensor length(cm) //Sensor resistance(m/cm) //Current value(mA) //Initializes LCD //Sends data to LCD //Sends 8-bit data to LCD in 4-Bit mode //Returns helium level as a string

lcd_init(); lcdData(char, int); sendToLcd(char, int); getLenStr(unsigned long int, char*);

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void getVolumeStr(unsigned long int, char*); //Returns volume of helium as a string void dispLCD(char *); //Displays a string in LCD int main(void) { DDRC |= 1; DDRA = 0; lcd_init(); dispLCD("Please wait..."); int i; float v1, v2, res, length,vol; unsigned long int l,volume; SPIinit(); PORTC |= (1<<heater); _delay_ms(4000); PORTC &= ~(1<<heater); lcd_init(); char str1[16],str2[16]; while(1) { v1=0.0; v2=0.0; i=0; while(i<1000) { v1 += ((float)readExADC(1)/4095.0)*5; v2 += getHighVol(readExADC(0)); i++; } v1 -= LO_VOL_OFF; //offset correction res = (v2-v1)*1000/curr; if(res < 0) res = 0.0; length = (SNSR_LN - res/SNSR_RES)*1000.0; if(length < 0) length = 0.0; vol = getVolume(length); l = length; volume = vol; getLenStr(l,str1); getVolumeStr(volume,str2);

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sendToLcd(0x80,0); dispLCD(str1); sendToLcd(0xC0,0); dispLCD(str2); } } float getHighVol(unsigned int adcVal) { float val = 0.01214*adcVal-0.01062; return val; } float getVolume(float height) { //returns volume in litres

float refList[103] = {0.0, 0.4, 1.6, 3.6, 6.3, 9.8, 14.1, 19.2, 25.0, 31.6,\ 38.9, 46.9, 55.9, 68.1, 79.0, 89.8, 101.3, 113.2, 125.3, 137.7, 150.1, 162.7,\ 175.2, 187.8, 200.4, 212.9, 225.5, 238.0, 250.6, 263.2, 275.7, 288.3, 300.9,\ 313.4, 326.0, 338.5, 351.1, 363.7, 376.2, 388.8, 401.3, 413.9, 426.5, 439.0,\ 451.6, 464.2, 476.7, 489.3, 501.8, 514.4, 527.0, 539.5, 552.1, 564.6, 577.2,\ 589.8, 602.3, 614.9, 627.5, 640.0, 652.6, 665.1, 677.7, 690.3, 702.8, 715.4,\ 727.9, 740.5, 753.1, 765.6, 778.2, 790.8, 803.3, 815.9, 828.4, 841.0, 853.6,\ 866.1, 878.7, 891.2, 903.8, 916.4, 928.9, 941.3, 953.6, 965.6, 977.3, 988.6,\ 999.2, 1010.7, 1022.0, 1030.4, 1038.2, 1045.2, 1051.4, 1056.9, 1061.7, 1065.7,\ 1068.9, 1071.3, 1073.0, 1074.1, 1074.3}; int n = (int)(height/1000.0); float val = refList[n] + (refList[n+1]-refList[n])*(height/1000.0 - (float)n); return val*10; } void getLenStr(unsigned long int len, char* str) { strcpy(str," Level= . cm "); int dec = len % 1000, num = len/1000, t = 100, i=7; if (dec % 100 >=50) dec = dec/100 + 1; else dec = dec/100; if (dec > 9) { num++; dec = 0;

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} str[11] = dec + 48; while(i < 10) { str[i++] = num/t + 48; num %= t; t /= 10; } } void getVolumeStr(unsigned long int volume, char* str) { strcpy(str," Vol= . L "); int dec = volume % 10, num = volume/10, t = 1000, i=6; str[11] = dec + 48; while(i < 10) { str[i++] = num/t + 48; num %= t; t /= 10; } } void SPIinit() { CS_HIGH(); //Idle mode DDRB |= (1<<MOSI) | (1<<SCK) | (1<<CS); SPCR = (1<<SPE)|(1<<MSTR)|(1<<SPR0); SPSR |= (1<<SPI2X); } unsigned int SPIwrite(unsigned int data) { SPDR = data; while(!(SPSR & (1<<SPIF))); return SPDR; } unsigned int readExADC(unsigned int channel) { unsigned int byte, dataH, dataL; byte = 0b10100000; byte |= (channel<<6);

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CS_LOW(); SPIwrite(1); dataH = SPIwrite(byte); dataL = SPIwrite(0); CS_HIGH(); dataH &= 0x0F; return (dataH*256 + dataL); } void lcd_init() { LCDDDR |= 0b11111100; sendToLcd(0x02,0); sendToLcd(0x28,0); sendToLcd(0x01,0); sendToLcd(0x0C,0); } void dispLCD(char *a) { char *i=a; while(*i!='\0') sendToLcd(*(i++),1); } void sendToLcd(char dataValue, int mode) { char dataValue1; dataValue1 = dataValue & 0xF0; lcdData(dataValue1, mode); dataValue1=( (dataValue<<4) & 0xF0); lcdData(dataValue1, mode); } void lcdData(char data,int mode) { LCDPORT &= 0x0F; LCDPORT |= data; if(mode) LCDPORT |= (1<<rs); else LCDPORT &= ~(1<<rs); LCDPORT |= (1<<en); _delay_ms(2); LCDPORT &=~ (1<<en); } // to initialize LCD in 4-bit mode. //to initialize LCD in 2 lines, 5X7 dots and 4bit mode. // function to initialize

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Possible Improvements
The following additions may be made to the project to add some features 1. Serial communication with a computer may be introduced to monitor the helium level and maintain statistics. 2. A keypad interface may be added for easier calibration later, if required.

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Gallery
The following are a few snapshots of the helium level indicator at various stages of development.

The preliminary circuit boards

Circuit boards mounted on a base

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Front view of the assembled unit

Rear view of the assembled unit

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The working unit in the cryo-lab

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Bibliography
[1] K. P. Jngst and E. Sss, Superconducting helium level sensor, CRYOGENICS. AUGUST 1984 0011-2275/84/00842904 [2] Muhammad Ali Mazidi, Sarmad Naimi and Sepher Naimi, The AVR Microcontroller and Embedded Systems using assembly and C, Pearson (2011) [3] P. Horowitz and W. Hill, The Art of Electronics, Cambridge University Press (1989)

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