|Publication number||US7259952 B2|
|Application number||US 11/243,038|
|Publication date||Aug 21, 2007|
|Filing date||Oct 4, 2005|
|Priority date||Sep 30, 2002|
|Also published as||US6980174, US20040066588, US20060017647|
|Publication number||11243038, 243038, US 7259952 B2, US 7259952B2, US-B2-7259952, US7259952 B2, US7259952B2|
|Inventors||Michael D. Flasza, Stanislaw Bleszynski|
|Original Assignee||Magnetrol International, Inc.|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (4), Classifications (13), Legal Events (3)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
This application claims priority of application No. 60/414,847 filed Sep. 30, 2002, application No. 60/467,853 filed May 5, 2003 and is a divisional of application No. 10/675,666 filed Sep. 30, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,980,174.
This invention relates to a process control instrument and more particularly, to an intrinsic safety barrier for a process control instrument.
Industrial processes often require measuring the level of liquid or other material in a tank. Many technologies are used for level measurement. With contact level measurement some part of the system, such as a probe, must contact the material being measured. With non-contact level measurement the level is measured without contacting the material to be measured. One example is non-contact ultrasound, which uses high-frequency audio waves to detect level. Another example is use of high-frequency or microwave RF energy. Microwave measurement for level generally uses either pulsed or frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) signals to make product level measurements. This method is often referred to as through air radar. Through air radar has the advantage that it is non-contact and relatively insensitive to measurement errors from varying process pressure and temperature. Known radar process control instruments operate at frequency bands of approximately 6 Ghz or 24 Ghz.
While tank radar process control instruments measure product level without contact, in most cases part of the instrument must be mounted on the tank and a microwave antenna must be inserted into the tank in order to function. Problems can arise if the medium in the tank is “hazardous”, i.e. it is subject to ignition and/or explosion. Any equipment installed in such locations must meet strict requirements in order to assure that any device, including tank level measurement devices, cannot ignite the vapors, etc., that may be present in such a tank. One method for achieving safe operation is to include a so-called intrinsic safety (IS) barrier in the system design. The concept of the IS barrier is to guarantee that sufficient amounts of energy cannot be transferred into the tank, in this case via the antenna, to cause an explosion. The IS, or energy-limiting barrier, may consist of zener diodes, current limiting resistors, and fuses so that energy levels at the antenna remain safely below published, known ignition curves for the particular process. IS barriers are traditionally placed in the input connections of a process control instrument. Doing so may cause loss of loop power and supply voltage due to the protective components, and produce ground loop product problems, which are difficult to overcome in multiple unit installations. An optimum location for the IS barrier is at the antenna connection. However, placing an IS barrier at the RF stages of the instrument could pose problems. Circuit design factors such as output impedance matching, return loss, agency compliance, and others are typical concerns. Radiated spectrum compliance, and in some cases radar receiver performance, can often be aided by filtering at the antenna connection.
An additional requirement for industrial measurements such as radar process control instruments is a dielectric withstand test. As a measure of reliability, the power connections are shorted together and a relatively high DC voltage is applied between the shorted loop leads and the instrument case (earth ground). To pass the test, the circuit electronics must be able to withstand this voltage from its circuitry to earth ground. An IS barrier placed at the antenna connection may be called upon to withstand this voltage.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above in a novel and simple manner.
In accordance with the invention, there is disclosed a process control instrument using distributed elements in the circuit design for intrinsic safety.
Broadly, in accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is disclosed a process control instrument comprising a circuit board having a control circuit for generating or receiving a high frequency signal. An antenna includes an electrical conductor. An intrinsic safety circuit couples the control circuit to the antenna and comprises a microstrip transmission line on the circuit board electrically connecting the control circuit to the electrical conductor. A safety stub has a first end electrically connected to the transmission line proximate the electrical conductor and a second end connected to a ground of the control circuit.
It is a feature of the invention that the safety stub comprises a trace line on the circuit board.
It is another feature of the invention that the second end of the trace line includes conductive vias connected to the ground.
It is still another feature of the invention that the trace line comprises a quarter wavelength trace line.
It is still another feature of the invention that the safety stub comprises a wire element.
It is yet another feature of the invention that the intrinsic safety circuit further comprises a radial stub electrically connected to the transmission line.
It is an additional feature of the invention that the safety stub has a length selected to resonate at a select frequency of interest.
It is yet another feature of the invention that the safety stub comprises a trace line on the circuit board having a width of at least 2.0 mm and may be about 2.5 mm and having a length of about 10 mm.
There is disclosed in accordance with another aspect of the invention a process control instrument comprising a circuit board having first and second sides and a control circuit on the first side for generating or receiving a high frequency signal. An antenna includes a coaxial electrical conductor having a center conductor and a shield. An intrinsic safety circuit couples the control circuit to the antenna comprising the circuit board first side including a first microstrip stub electrically connected to the control circuit and a ground plane proximate the transmission line. The circuit board second side includes a second microstrip stub, directly underlying the first microstrip stub, electrically connected to the center conductor, and a ground pad, underlying the ground plane, electrically connected to the shield.
It is a feature of the invention that the first microstrip stub and the second microstrip stub are each of quarter wavelength.
It is another feature of the invention to provide a second ground plane on the circuit board second side proximate the second microstrip stub and the ground pad. The spacing between the ground plane and the ground pad is at least 2.0 mm.
It is yet another feature of the invention that the ground pad is configured to resonate at an operating frequency.
It is a further feature of the invention that the ground pad comprises a microstrip line connected between opposite radial stubs.
Further features and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the specification and from the drawings.
Referring initially to
The antenna may consist of an active element or “launcher” which can have various designs, but which may consist of, for example, a one quarter wavelength dipole inserted into a waveguide. The active element can create safety concerns if it is capable of conducting energy levels into the tank that can cause ignition.
One approach to limiting the energy to the center conductor 40 of the coaxial cable 28 might be to place an intrinsic safety (IS) barrier proximate the antenna connection 34. This IS barrier might consist of resistors, diodes, fuses, etc., and is intended to limit the energy from the center conductor to levels below the established energy limit curves for the process. However, such an IS barrier must be controlled and optimized at microwave frequencies for several key parameters such as return loss and output impedance. Moreover, with the frequencies involved in microwave radar (5-8 Ghz or 22-25 Ghz) circuit design using discrete components can be extremely difficult.
Safety agencies have various requirements for printed circuit (PC) board layouts that must be followed to satisfy intrinsically safe requirements. A PC board trace must be of a certain minimum width, must be a minimum distance from other traces, and must have a redundant connection into a safe ground to be considered infallible.
The present invention relates to combining concepts of distributed-element microwave design with agency intrinsic safe ground requirements. Particularly, circuit elements such as inductors, capacitors, transmission lines, band pass filters, etc., are constructed for microwave frequencies by using transmission-line (microstrip) elements, which are PC board traces of controlled geometry (width/length, shape, etc.) while satisfying intrinsic safe ground requirements.
The present invention is not directed to the particular RF circuit for generating or receiving a high frequency microwave signal or to the antenna, but rather to an intrinsic safety circuit for coupling the RF circuit to the antenna.
The printed circuit board 62 includes a control circuit, which may be of conventional nature, and having an RF circuit, illustrated in block form as element 76. The RF control circuit 76 generates or receives a high frequency microwave signal, as discussed above. The microwave signal may be either a pulsed signal or a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) signal. In accordance with the invention, an intrinsic safety (IS) barrier or circuit 78 couples the RF circuit 76 to the antenna 54, see
In the embodiment of
For microstrips to have certain characteristic impedance, an important design parameter, the thickness of the PC board 62, its relative dielectric value, and the geometry of the trace 86 must be known. For PC board materials of thickness 0.062 inches and a relative dielectric value of 4.5, and for a characteristic impedance of 50 Ohms, an approximate trace width is about 2.5 mm. At frequencies of 6 Ghz, a quarter wavelength on the PC board 62 might be about 10 mm. Practical values for the trace widths readily exist that are wide enough to meet agency width requirements of 2 mm. As is apparent, different dimensions would be used for different frequencies. Spacing requirements are satisfied by keeping other circuitry away from the IS ground area. Redundant requirements may be satisfied by triple conductive vias 94 through the printed circuit boards 62 connected to a conventional ground plane, represented schematically at 92, on an opposite side of the circuit board 62 to satisfy infallible ground requirements. As is apparent, conductive vias are not required for the claimed invention.
As is apparent, other configurations are possible for the distributed element network to be placed at the antenna connector 70 that can be used to meet intrinsic safety ground requirements and not affect the microwave circuit, as in
Referring initially to
The intrinsic safety circuit 178 of
While each of the variations of
As described above, the typical method to couple a microwave signal from its source outside a tank, such as the RF circuit 76 of
On the PC boards second side 404, see
A coaxial cable 420, similar to the coaxial cable 66 of
The described intrinsic safety circuit 408 is inexpensive as it only uses distributed PC board traces and no discrete components. Frequencies to be transmitted and received may be tuned via the size and length of the stubs 410 and 414. Since these quarter wavelength stubs 410 and 414 effectively couple only RF energy at the resonant frequencies, which is determined by the physical size and length as well as thickness and dielectric constant of the PC board material, frequencies below or above the desired microwave frequency are not effectively coupled by the structure, affording a desirable filter characteristic.
Adequate spacing, greater than 2 mm, is maintained between the quarter wavelength stub 414, ground pad 416 and ground plane 418 to satisfy agency requirements.
The control circuit 406 can be a transmitter, receiver, or any type of circuit that must couple microwave energy to an antenna. The length and width of the stubs 410 and 414 determine the frequency of most efficient coupling (center frequency) and the stubs characteristic impedance for impedance matching purposes. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, 7 mm by 2.5 mm stubs 410 and 414 are used with a typical PC board thickness of 0.063 inches and dielectric constant of 4.5 to effectively couple signals in the 6 Ghz range. Stub length/width/impedance may be varied for other operating frequencies and/or different substrate materials.
As is apparent, shape of either the second stub 414 or coax ground pad 416 may be different from those shown in
Thus, in accordance with the invention, intrinsic safety circuit is provided for coupling a high frequency microwave signal to an antenna in a through air radar process control instrument.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US6640084||Nov 29, 2000||Oct 28, 2003||Krishna Pande||Complete outdoor radio unit for LMDS|
|US6642902||Apr 8, 2002||Nov 4, 2003||Kenneth A. Hirschberg||Low loss loading, compact antenna and antenna loading method|
|US6906668||Jun 11, 2003||Jun 14, 2005||Harris Corporation||Dynamically reconfigurable aperture coupled antenna|
|US6980174 *||Sep 30, 2003||Dec 27, 2005||Magnetrol International, Inc.||Process control instrument intrinsic safety barrier|
|U.S. Classification||361/119, 361/113|
|International Classification||H01Q1/38, H02H9/00, H01Q23/00|
|Cooperative Classification||H01Q1/38, H01Q1/002, H01Q1/50, H01Q23/00|
|European Classification||H01Q1/50, H01Q1/00C, H01Q23/00, H01Q1/38|
|Feb 22, 2011||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4
|Jun 5, 2013||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: THE PRIVATEBANK AND TRUST COMPANY, ILLINOIS
Free format text: SECURITY AGREEMENT;ASSIGNORS:MAGNETROL INTERNATIONAL, INCORPORATED;INTROTEK INTERNATIONAL, L.P.;REEL/FRAME:030550/0098
Effective date: 20130605
|Feb 23, 2015||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 8