Advanced Sensors and Their Interface Circuits: Review and Perspective

Abstract

Sensor development started with process control demands but it is currently fostered by applications requiring sensors embedded in products, packages, and our environment. Sensors developed for specific markets often create unexpected markets. Sensor advances are linked to progress in materials and IC manufacturing technology, and benefit from both classical and novel sensing principles. MEMS, ceramics, thin films, organic polymers, and fiber optics have yielded sensors that are both displacing legacy sensors and opening new application areas. Sensor interface circuits benefit from: (a) more accurate and less expensive general purpose analog components; (b) IC signal conditioners tailored to specific sensor types; and (c) low-cost mixed signal circuits able to provide inexpensive computation and communication capabilities. The convergence of computing, communications, and sensors is leading towards sensors networks. Autonomous sensors in wireless sensor networks nodes need power-efficient signal and power conditioning, as well as signal communication and network management.