The wide-dynamic-range ZSSC3122 Lite SSC (sensor signal conditioner) from ZMD delivers 14bit resolution and 0.25% scale-output accuracy. The SSC has a built-in sleep mode that lowers current consumption to less than 1µA for temperatures up to 85°C, making it suitable for low-power battery applications, as well as industrial and rugged environments. It is also suitable for microelectromechanical system sensing elements, such as pressure sensors for hydraulic control systems, humidity sensors and liquid-level gauges. Capacitive sensors do not touch or make direct contact with the system being sensed, making them suitable for industrial linear and angular position sensors and contactless potentiometers. The SSC has an operating current of 60µA over the voltage range of 1.8 to 5.5V. It can be configured to interface with capacitive sensors from 2 to 10pF with a sensitivity of 125aF per digital bit. The SSC connects to microcontrollers but can also be utilised in standalone designs for transducer and switch applications. The mixed-signal design of the device offers 14bit capacitive-to-digital conversion and 14bit compensation of sensor offset, sensitivity and temperature via an internal digital signal processor running a correction algorithm.
