Anita Ganti
London, England: National Semiconductor has launched two configurable sensor analogue front-end (AFE) ICs with technology that works together with new tools to fast-track signal path designs for a variety of sensors.
The configurable sensor AFE ICs and Webench Sensor AFE Designer enable design engineers to select a sensor, design and configure the solution, and download configuration data to the sensor AFE. A typical sensing application that today may require several boards and up to 25 components is reduced to just one IC, and the time to create a sensor system design is reduced to minutes, claims the company.
“Sensor-based system designs are time-consuming and complicated to develop, requiring an optimal design for each system,” explained Anita Ganti, Precision Systems Business Unit director at National. “Until now, designers have developed customized analogue solutions that took weeks or even months to develop, but we can now help them get to market more quickly.”
The first in a family of products, National’s two configurable sensor AFE products are each customized to a specific sensor application and have a variety of features, including programmable current sources, voltage reference options, and adjustable sample rates.
The LMP91000 is the industry’s first fully configurable, low-power potentiostat that provides a complete, integrated signal path solution between a sensor and analogue-to-digital converter (ADC). The LMP90100 is the industry’s first multi-channel, low-power, 24-bit sensor AFE with true continuous background calibration and diagnostics for high-performance transmitter and transducer applications.
The Webench Sensor AFE Designer includes technical specifications for hundreds of temperature, pressure, and chemical sensors.