Electrical Measurement and Electronic Instruments

By Prof. Avishek Chatterjee | IIT Kharagpur

Learners enrolled: 1131 | Exam registration: 32

ABOUT THE COURSE :

It is a core course for all UG Electrical Engineering students. The content of this course is also aligned to the syllabus for the GATE EE exam. The course has two halves: (1) Electrical Measurements (6 weeks): Working principle and Dynamics of different electro-mechanical instruments, ammeter, voltmeter, ohmmeter, wattmeter, energy meter, measurement of resistance and impedances, bridges and potentiometers, Instrument transformers. (2) Electronic Instruments (6 weeks): Differential amplifier, op-amp circuits, Analog DC and AC instruments, ADC and DAC, Digital instruments, function generator, oscilloscope Find details below

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Mainly Electrical Engineering, Instrumentation Engineering Also interested students from Electronics, Physics and similar disciplines PREREQUISITES: Basic Principles of Electrical Engineering (Circuit Theory), Basic Digital and Analog Electronics

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: Must for Power generation industry, Power distribution industry, Electronics industry Also highly required for Automotive industry, Rail industry, Aerospace industry, Telecommunications industry, Oil and gas industry, Construction industry, Defense industry, Marine industry, Materials and metals industry

Summary

Course Status :	Upcoming
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering Control and Instrumentation Power Systems and Power Electronics
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Undergraduate
Start Date :	21 Jul 2025
End Date :	10 Oct 2025
Enrollment Ends :	28 Jul 2025
Exam Registration Ends :	15 Aug 2025
Exam Date :	02 Nov 2025 IST
NCrF Level	4.5 — 8.0

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Module A1 : Measurement Error, Accuracy and Instrument grades , Module A2: Electromechanical instruments

Week 2:   Module A2: Electromechanical instruments (contd.) , Module A3 : Electromechanical ammeters, voltmeters and ohmmeters 

Week 3: Module A4 : Electromechanical wattmeter and energy meter
Week 4: Module A5 : Resistance Measurement , Module A6 : Impedance Measurement: AC Bridges
Week 5: Module A6 : Impedance Measurement: AC Bridges (contd.) , Module A7 : Potentiometers: DC and AC ,
Week 6: Module A8 : Instrument transformers: CT & PT , Module A9 :Magnetic Measurement
Week 7: Module B1 : Analog Instrumentation Basics
Week 8: Module B1 : Analog Instrumentation Basics(contd.) , Module B2 : Analog Instrumentation
Week 9: Module B3 : Digital Instrumentation Basics
Week 10: Module B4 : Digital Instrumentation
Week 11: Module B5 : Signal and Function Generators
Week 12: Module B6 : Oscilloscope and Electronic probes

Books and references

1. Electronic Instrumentation and Measurements: David A. Bell 2. A course in Electrical and Electronic Measurements and Instrumentation: A. K. Sawhney 3. Basic Electrical Measurements: M B Stout 4. Electrical Measurements and Measuring Instruments, E.W Golding, F.C Widdis

Part I: Electrical Measurements: Chapter wise study material

	Chapters
1	Electromechanical instruments Chapter 3 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 3-2 (operating forces only), 3-3, 3-4, 3-5 (Only simple attraction and siple repulsion type), 3-6(Excluding Quadrant-type Electrostatic Voltmeter), 3-8
2	Electromechanical Ammmeters, Voltmeters and Ohmmeters Chapter 4 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, 4-5
3	Low, Medium and High Resistance Measurement Chapter 8 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 8-1, 8-2, 8-3 (Only four-terminal Resistors and Kelvin Bridge), 8-5 (only Voltmeter and Ammeter Method and Guard wire and Guard Ring), 8-6 (if time permits only Hand-cranked Megohmmeter)
4	Electro-mechanical wattmeters and energy meters Chapter 16 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 16-1, 16-2, 16-3 (if time permits), 16-4 (excluding single wattmeter method), 16-5, 16-7 (excluding energy meter error sources and correction)
5	Potentiometers: DC and AC Chapter 14 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 14-3 (Basic DC Potentiometer), 14-4 (Kelvin-Varley Voltage Divider), 14-5, Additional: Question: Why or when Potentiometers are used? Ans: No loading current
6	Impedence Measurement: AC Bridges Chapter 9-10 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 9-1, Chapter 10 Completely, DON'T Memorize the names of the bridges. We shall never ask you to draw Maxwell, Anderson, Carey-Foster, ... bridges DO Understand and remember the generic bridge balance equation both in product form as well as ratio form Be able to quickly recognize whether a given bridge can be balanced or not Most bridges are either a product bridge or a ratio bridge, be able to quickly find the balance equation of such a bridge Be able to find bacance equation of any arbitrary bridge Be able to design a product or a ratio bridge to measure an unknown inductance or capacitance and find the balance equation Be able to design a product or a ratio bridge to measure an unknown inductance or capacitance under the constraints such as you do not have any standard inductor (or capacitor) or you do not have standard high (or low) value resistances etc. Understand that in AC bridges the balance is obtained through iterative and alternate tuning where the convergence is an isuue
7	Instrument transformers: CT & PT What you should know Why or when instrument transformers are used? Equivalent circuit of a transformer Phasor diagram of a transformer Why insturument transformers are used (range changing, safety and other causes)? What is ratio error? What is phase angle error and in what context this is important? To justify from the phasor diagram or equivalent circuit why the leakage impedance should be minimized in a PT? Why the no-load current should be small in a CT? Why the secondary of a PT should never be shorted? why the secondary of a CT should never be opened?
8	Measurement errors Chapter 2 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 2-3,
9	Miscellaneous Magnetic Measurement: Chapter 17 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 17-2 (Hall effect Sensor), 17-3 (Magnetic Fulx measuremet with a Ballistic Galvanometer)

Part II: Electronic Instruments: Chapter wise study material

	Chapters
1	From Flip-Flops to Couters Chapter 6 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 6-1, 6-3, 6-4
2	Op-Amp
3	Digital Frequency meter Chapter 7 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 7-3, 7-4, 7-5,
4	Digital Voltmeter Chapter 7 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 7-1,
5	ADC and DAC Chapter 6 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 6-5, 6-6,
6	Instrumentation with opamps Chapter 5 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 5-2, 5-3, 5-4, 5-5,
7	Instrumentation with transistors Chapter 5 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 5-1,
8	Function Generators Chapter 13 of David Bell's Book Sections to read: 13-2, 13-3,

Instructor bio

Prof. Avishek Chatterjee

IIT Kharagpur

Prof.Avishek Chatterjee received the degree of B.E.E from Jadavpur University, Kolkata in 2009 followed by the degree of M.E. and PhD. From Indian Institute of Science in 2011 and 2016 respectively. He teaches this subject in IIT Kharagpur.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: November 02, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Kharagpur. It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team