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PII: S0011-2275(97)00162-8

Cryogenics 38 (1998) 289291 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0011-2275/98/$19.00

Simple continuous level meter for cryogenic liquids


M. Medeova*, V. Pavl k and P. Skyba
Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 47, 04353, Kos ice, Slovakia

Received 20 July 1997


Very simple continuous level meter with capacitive transducer for cryogenic liquids (LO2, LN2 and LHe) is presented. The principle of the level meter operation is based on the phase-locked loop (PLL) technique of capacity measurements which results in a high linearity and good stability of the level measurement. 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Keywords: continuous level meter; cryogenic liquids

So far, the large variety of the cryogenic liquids level meters with discrete or continuous level indication has been described in1,2 and requirements for these instruments have already been pointed out in detailed form in3. Therefore, in this article we describe only the principle of the PLL level detector operation and present its characteristics.

here rl and rg denote the dielectric constant of the liquid and gas, respectively. Several methods and techniques are possible to use for the capacity measurement, including AC bridges, pulse methods, etc. In this paper the use of a modied phaselocked loop (PLL) method for capacity measurement is presented.

Introduction
The principle of the level measurement using a capacitive transducer is very well known. It is based on the difference in the value of the dielectric constant r for the gas and liquid, the level of which is measured. The capacitive transducer is usually designed and constructed in the form of two coaxial tubes insulated to each other by suitable insulator, for example by a shing line. The capacity of such transducer is given by expression C= 20r H ln( D/d ) (1)

Principle of operation and characteristics


The standard scheme of the PLL-detector consists of the phase comparator, the lowpass lter and the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) (see Figure 1 ). In the locked condition the frequency of VCO follows the frequency changes of the input signal because the feedback loop holds zero phase difference between the frequency of VCO and the input signal frequency. In such a way, the VCO controlled voltage VVCO is proportional to the frequency change of the input signal. This is a standard application of the PLL technique in the detection of frequency modulated signals. Using Laplace notation ( V( s ) = L[ v( t )]) one can easily derive equation for VCO controlled voltage4: VVCO( s ) = sr( s ) H( s ) K0 (3)

where 0 is the dielectric constant of vacuum, r is the dielectric constant of the medium between the electrodes, D and d are diameters of outer and inner electrode, respectively, and H is the height of the transducer. If the transducer is lled up to height h by the cryogenic liquid, the corresponding change of the capacity is C = 20 ( rg )h ln( D/d ) rl (2)

where H( s ) is the closed-loop transfer function: H( s ) = K0KdF( s ) s + K0KdF( s ) (4)

*To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Here K0 is the VCO gain factor, Kd is the phase detector gain factor, F( s ) is the lter transfer function and r( s ) is the phase of the incoming signal. The presented level meter is based on a modication of

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Simple continuous level meter for cryogenic liquids: M. Medeova et al.

Figure 1 The principle of phase-locked loop detection technique

the PLL scheme which is analogous to the principle of regulation in the voltage controlled voltage or current sources5. This modication consists in the use of a reference generator oscillating with a constant (reference) frequency fr as the input signal and in the connection of the capacity transducer Cx to the VCO circuit as the detection element. Thus, the VCO frequency depends on both the controlled voltage VVCO and the capacity of the transducer Cx. Owing to the changes in the cryogenic liquid level, the VCO frequency is set by the PLL to hold zero phase difference between the reference frequency fr and VCO frequency fx. As a result, the VCO controlled voltage VVCO follows the level changes in the cryogenic liquid. This may be seen from Equation (3) by replacing VCO gain factor K0 with expression K0 = k0 /Cx and assuming the high amplication of the loop, i.e. H( s ) 1. Then Equation (3) may be written in the form: VVCO( s ) = sr( s ) Cx k0 (5)

As seen from Equation (5) the VVCO controlled voltage

is linear with the changes of transducer capacity Cx, because the frequency of input (reference) signal is constant ( L1[ sr( s )] r = const.). In Figure 2, the scheme of the PLL continuous level meter is presented. The crystal controlled reference generator oscillates with the constant frequency 4 MHz, which is set to the value of 250 kHz by the divider (7493 type integration circuit (IC)). This reference signal is the incoming signal for the phase comparator of the monolithic phase-locked loop IC LM565. The output error voltage from the phase comparator is ltered by a second order lowpass lter. This ltered signal controls the frequency of VCO. The low pass lter and its parameters ( Cf, Rf ) were designed using recommendations of an application note presented in6. To reduce the inuence of ambient air temperature on the VCO controlled voltage the LM565 is warmed above room temperature using a small heater. Increase of the cryogenic liquid level will increase the capacity of the sensor. The VCO must remain in locked condition for the minimum as well as for the maximum capacity of the sensor. To fulll this condition the VCO frequency is set using resistor Ra so that the phase differ-

Figure 2 The scheme of the PLL continuous level meter

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Simple continuous level meter for cryogenic liquids: M. Medeova et al.

Figure 3 The dependence of the level-meter output voltage on the capacity change. The solid line corresponds to the t of experimental data by linear function f( x ) = a + bx with parameters a = 14.56 4 and b = 170.7 1.1

Figure 4 The long-time stability of the voltage difference between VVCO and reference voltage measured after power-on. The dashed lines show deviation in range of 1 mV

ence between the reference and VCO signals is less than 90 for the whole range of the sensor capacity changes. The differential amplier (MAC 524 type IC) is used to provide a level shift, and, if necessary, also to provide an additional gain of the voltage signal according to the type of cryogenic liquid, the level of which is being measured. The amplier measures the difference between the VCO controlled voltage and the reference voltage. As a reference voltage the source of stable voltage (MAC01 IC) is used. The level shift is adjusted by Rl. This serves to set zero value of the DC output voltage at the zero level of the cryogenic liquid. The DC output voltage can be measured by an A/D converter, a panel meter, etc. The level sensor is made of the stainless steel wire with a diameter of 1 mm situated in the pair of coaxial thinwalled stainless steel tubes with diameter of 2.5 mm and 4 mm. The wire and the inside tube, both with length of 440 mm, create the sensor, and the outside tube with length of 1 m shields the sensor. The wire and tubes are held apart by the insulator. The initial capacity of the transducer is 100 pF. The measuring circuit is mounted directly on the top of the transducer to reduce parasitic capacitance of the connection cable and it is connected to the sensor via twisted-pair wire. In Figure 3, the dependence of the VVCO on the capacity change of the transducer Cx is presented. The measurements were performed using additional capacitors connected parallel to the transducer. The t of the measured values with linear function showed good linearity of the measurement and very good sensitivity of the level meter, 171 mV/pF. This sensitivity allows to measure the level of the liquid helium. The corresponding change of the voltage for sensor fully lled with LHe is 800 mV. A long-time stability of the electronics measured after power-on is presented in Figure 4. The instabilities of the voltage difference between VVCO and reference voltage are in the range of 1 mV within 9 hours. The instabilities are caused mainly due to changes in ambient air temperature. If we are taking into

account that the output level of VVCO is about 4 Volts and we neglect the reference voltage instabilities, then the deviations in range of 1 mV represents the stability of 2.5 10-4. This corresponds to the temperature stability of the LM565 voltage controlled oscillator which, according to6, is in the range of 200 ppm/C.

Conclusion
The continuous PLL level meters linearity and very good sensitivity allows the measurement of all the cryogenic liquids including liquid 4He. In the case of LO2 or LN2 level-measurement the sensitivity of the instrument can be set by the reference frequency. Time stability of the output voltage (better than 1 mV) is appropriate for standard level measurements in cryostats. The PLL principle of the capacity measurement presented above is also suitable for measurements of other physical quantities which are detected by the capacitive sensor.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Slovak Grant Agency VEGA grant No. 2/4178/1997. We gratefully acknowledge OCEL a.s. Kos ice. the material support provided by VSZ

References
1. Richardson, R.C. and Smith, E.N., Experimental Techniques in Condensed Matter Physics at Low Temperatures. Adison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. New York, 1988. 2. White, K.G., Experimental Techniques in Low-Temperature Physics. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989 3. Velichkov, I.V., Drobin, V.M., Cryogenics, 1990, 30, 538. 4. Gardner, M.F., Phase-lock Techniques. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1979. 5. Horowitz, P. and Hill, W., The Art of Electronics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989. 6. Mills, B.T., Linear Applications Handbook. National Semiconductor Corporation, 1986, 141.

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