Sensor Chips Information

Description

Sensor chips are dies incorporating semiconductor circuit elements that are used to convert changes to some physical parameter to an electrical signal. Like other semiconductors, a sensor chip can be flexible, and can be manufactured as a signal conditioning chip, a stand-alone transducer, or a combination.

Integrated Circuit (IC) Package Types

SC-170, which is used in handheld devices such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs)

Small outline transistor (SOT) packages like SOT23 and SOT123

Small outline (SO) packages like SO-8 and SO-16

Transistor outline packages such as TO-8

Bare die

Quarter size outline package (QSOP)

Sensor chips can interface with several hardware busses, including the:

System management bus (SMBus)

Industry standard architecture (ISA) bus

I2C bus

Actuator sensor interface (also called AS-I or ASi)

Standards

Sensor chips that meet the requirements of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Standard 1451 can transmit electronic data to a data acquisition system. Sensor chips used for machinery safety/emergency stop applications can provide safety support up to Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3 according to International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard IEC 61508.