January 30, 2011 -- Signal chains for measurement of analog quantities typically pose the toughest design challenges for engineers. Even a simple signal chain with a resistive sensor and an analog-to-digital data-acquisition system involves multiple complex factors that have to be dealt with before a valid measurement can be made.
These factors are even more complex to manage when a system is working with different sensors. This article discusses different issues developers need to tackle for accurate measurement with illustrations of different type of resistive sensors.

By Kannan Sadasivam and Sachin Gupta. (Sadasivam is a staff applications engineer and Gupta is a senior applications engineer with Cypress Semiconductor, Inc.)