Design of a frequency signal conditioning unit applied to rotating systems in high temperature aero engine control

This paper covers the development and testing of a high temperature mixed signal unit capable of sensing wide dynamic range signals from rotating sensors. This generates an output current proportional to the peak value of the applied input signal from a sensor. The developed unit includes a current peak detector block, a digital pulse generator and ESD protection. The digital data from the unit can be directly utilized by the FADEC (Full Authority Digital Electronic Control) system or the EHMS (Engine Health Monitoring System) on an aeroengine. This mixed signal system was designed and realized on 1 um Silicon-on-Insulator CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) technology and has been shown to function up to 235°Celsius with very high linearity of the output signal.