Sensor technology

Measuring is knowing, but you need to know what you are measuring.

Sensors are converters. They convert a physical magnitude into an electrical one.

Examples:

• Temperature sensor, converts temperature into current or resistance. Or directly into a digital signal.
• Pressure sensor, converts pressure into a voltage, a current or a resistance.
• Strain gage and loadcell, converts force into a variable resistance.
• Level sensor, converts a (liquid) level into a voltage, a current or a digital signal.
• Compass sensor, converts the direction of the earth’s magnetic field into a voltage.

The true sensor is the measuring cell, thàt component that really performs the conversion between the physical magnitude and the electrical one. Sometimes that is not a single component but a component assembly. Take for example a distance meter that uses the echo principle. A signal is transmitted and received after some time. Which single component makes the sensor ?

Usually speaking we mean by the sensor: the assembly of components that convert a physical magnitude into a usable electrical signal.

We use sensors and we know how to handle them, how to apply the measuring cells. And we know how to process, often very small, signals into a useable signal.

Please let us know what you want to measure, we like to help you out.