Digital sensor
AssigneePST Sensors (Proprietary) Limited
InventorsStephen David JONES, Emmanuel Ohieku JONAH, Margit HARTING, David Thomas BRITTON
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hybrid electronic sensing component comprises an integrated circuit attached to an analogue circuit into which at least one sensing element has been integrated. The hybrid sensing component provides an output in digital form in response to a quantifiable change in its environmental conditions. The sensing functionality is separated from the data processing, which reduces the effect of self-heating due to the power consumption in the processor.
Claims12
An electronic sensing component, which provides an output in digital form in response to a quantifiable change in an environmental condition, comprising an analogue circuit into which at least one sensing element, the resistance of which varies in relation to the change in the environmental condition, is integrated, at least one other resistor whose resistance remains constant with the change in the environmental condition, and at least one integrated circuit, which are connected such that when a potential difference is applied across the analogue circuit, two potentials, one of which corresponds to the environmental condition to be measured and the other corresponds to a reference value, are applied to the input terminals of the integrated circuit, thereby generating a unique digital signal at one or more of its output terminals, where the unique digital signal corresponds to the change in the environmental condition being measured.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.