Analog Sensor Signal Processing and Analog‐to‐Digital Conversion

This chapter outlines the principles of different components of a sensor node and the challenges to integrate sensor nodes in materials and mechanical structures. The front end of the data acquisition system amplifies and filters the signal of the sensor node. An amplifier and filter are crucial components in the initial signal processing. In data acquisition systems, the analog signal from the sensor has to be adjusted to suit the sampling frequency and the amplitude range needed by the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The ADC quantizes the analog signal by using one value out of a finite list of integer values to represent a given analog voltage level. The successive approximation ADC is by far the most popular architecture concerning data acquisition systems. Reconfigurable ADC supporting different resolutions can support the window ADC approach significantly in presence of varying bandwidth and dynamic ranges.