Embedded systems are using sensors with increasing frequency. While industrial products have always used them for manufacturing control systems, consumer devices are starting to employ them more often, as well. Sensors are being integrated into consumer products to create better user experiences — ranging from adding accelerometers in mobile phones to adding water vapor sensors in microwaves. System designers, who previously worked only in the digital domain, are now finding themselves having to interface with analog sensors. A sensor's analog signal needs to be digitized to be used by the system, and the signal path goes through several stages: amplification, filtering and digitization. Once the signal has been digitized, the user can pass it to a control system on the microcontroller or can massage the data and pass it to a host processor via a communication protocol. The sensor data can be utilized as required. To read more, click the download link below or visit Design News.
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