Smart field bus nodes with programmable sensor interfaces

Smart Field bus Nodes are powerful low cost devices. They are operated in industrial serial networks. They own an efficient communication and signal processing with "intelligent" functions and use extremely little power supply. The goal of a Plug&Play functionality for the sensor connection partially is reached with a universal hardware for the sensor signal acquisition. Requirement for it are in-systems programmable integrated circuits for digital and analogous functions. Analogous programmable integrated circuits are available more and more and must still be developed for special application areas. The fully automatic start up and maintenance of automation plants is essentially improved with such smart bus nodes.