Let’s Talk About Sensors and Analog Signal Conditioning

Inside Electronics

The world has been significantly impacted by the explosive growth in intelligent embedded systems being deployed everywhere in a Cloud-connected IoT-driven smart ecosystem. These sophisticated solutions are empowered by the latest and most powerful microcontrollers and processors, and driven by powerful software that is now becoming synthetically aware. However, without the input about the world around them and the application they are addressing, they are next to useless.

Sensors are paired with analog front-ends (AFE), signal conditioners that typically combine operational amplifiers and filters to improve input signals from sources such as sensors or antennas. Though the digital world may be run on binary digits, it needs to both derive information from and apply actions to the real analog world to function. Creating, choosing, and using AFEs and sensor applications can be challenging, depending on a designer's background and expertise.