Sensor Selection [Analog or Digital]

Sensor Selection [Analog or Digital]

Analog and Digital Sensors

To select a sensor it’s important to know about analog and digital circuits. Analog circuits are made up of analog components like resistor, capacitor, Operational amplifiers, diodes and transistors.

Whereas digital circuits consist of logic gates and microcontroller chips. Analog signals are much affected by external noise and create errors in the output signal. But digital signals are susceptible to noisy environments and hence digital sensors are preferred over analog ones.

Note: If your application needs better accuracy and throughput go for digital sensors.

Problem with digital sensors:

Digital sensors have low calculation range. For example, digital temperature sensors such as HYT 271 and SHT series have lower temperature range.

But analog temperature sensors (RTD) have higher resolution (positive and negative temperature). This feature makes analog sensors suitable for wide temperature range and stability. The analog output from the sensor is processed by the ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) of the microcontroller.