A sensor signal processor

A universal interface, named the sensor signal processor (SSP), is proposed. It is applicable to signal processing for almost all kinds of sensors, and it consists of two main blocks: a digital waveform generator to simulate the sensor characteristics, and analog circuitry to process the signal from the sensor in a form compatible with the digital block. The measurand is then determined by comparing the outputs of the two blocks. This architecture accommodates digital encoding and linearization functions. The offfset and gain adjustments may be made independently. To determine the detailed configuration of the analog circuitry, the SSP was used with a capacitive pressure sensor and a hot-wire anemometer. The results are summarized