Drive level

The drive (excitation) level is a general description of how hard a transducer is electrically excited. Three regimes are typically noted:

1. Signal (instrumentation) level. This is typically less than one volt (e.g., for impedance analyzers).
2. Low (instrumentation) level. This is typically less than 10 volts (e.g., for signal generators). This regime may also include the signal level regime. The resulting amplitudes are low; heating and nonlinear effects are generally not present.
3. High level. This is typically several hundred volts for power supplies and power amplifiers. This gives amplitudes near the operational amplitude of the transducer; significant heating and nonlinear effects may occur.