Transducer, device that converts input energy into output energy, the latter usually differing in kind but bearing a known relation to input. Originally, the term referred to a device that converted mechanical stimuli into electrical output, but it has been broadened to include devices that sense all forms of stimuli—such as heat, radiation, sound, strain, vibration, pressure, acceleration, and so on—and that can produce output signals other than electrical—such as pneumatic or hydraulic. Many measuring and sensing devices, as well as loudspeakers, thermocouples, microphones, and phonograph pickups, may be termed transducers.
There are hundreds of kinds of transducers, many of which are designated by the energy change they accomplish. For example, piezoelectric transducers contain a piezoelectric element that produces motion when subjected to an electrical voltage or produces electrical signals when subjected to strain. The latter effect may be applied in an accelerometer, a piezoelectric vibration pickup, or a strain gauge. An electroacoustic transducer may convert electrical signals to acoustic signals or vice versa. An example is the hydrophone, which responds to waterborne sound waves and is useful in underwater sound detection. A photoelectric transducer reacts to visible light to produce electrical energy. Electromagnetic transducers form a large group, the major categories of which are differential transformers, Hall-effect magnetic transducers, inductance transducers, induction transducers, and saturable reactors. These operate on electromagnetic principles.
Electrical transducers may be classified as active or passive. The active transducers generate electric current or voltage directly in response to stimulation. An example is the thermocouple; here, the fact that a current will flow in a continuous circuit of two metals, if the two junctions are at different temperatures, is used to generate electricity. The passive transducer produces a change in some passive electrical quantity, such as capacitance, resistance, or inductance, as a result of stimulation. Passive transducers usually require additional electrical energy. A simple example of a passive transducer is a device containing a length of wire and a moving contact touching the wire. The position of the contact determines the effective length of the wire and, thus, the resistance offered to electric current flowing through it. This is the simplest version of what is called a linear-displacement transducer, or linear potentiometer. For practical use, such transducers employ wire-wound, thin-film, or printed circuits to allow for a long resistor within a relatively small device. The longer the resistor, the greater the drop in voltage passing through the device; thus, changes in position are converted to electrical signals.
Transducers also may produce pneumatic or hydraulic output. Pneumatic systems communicate by means of compressed air. An example is a device in which motion is applied via a system of pivots to a baffle that can be moved closer to or farther away from a nozzle that emits a stream of air. The amount of resistance created by the baffle affects the amount of back pressure behind the nozzle, creating a pneumatic signal. Hydraulic systems tend to be designed similarly to pneumatic systems, except that hydraulic systems use hydraulic (liquid) pressure rather than air pressure. Fluidic principles, which apply to the interaction between two fluid streams, have also been used to create transducers.