Sensor Signal Conditioners (SSC/AFE)

Industrial Sensor Signal Conditioners

Renesas' portfolio of resistive and capacitive sensor signal conditioners are ideal for industrial applications (such as humidity sensors, flow sensors, pressure sensors, level sensors, etc.), allowing for high precision signal processing, in both system diagnostics and high-resolution output up to 24 bits.

Resistive SSCs provide flexibility in analog front-end configuration for easy sensor adaption with up to 24-bit ADC resolution, as well as various analog and digital output interfaces, enabling customers to develop complete sensor platforms. These SSCs are ideal for factory automation, consumer/white goods, and medical applications.

Capacitive SSCs enable a current consumption as low as 1.3µA at 1 sample per second. This energy-efficient solution optimizes battery-driven applications, such as HVAC systems, weather stations, and building automated climate and ventilation systems.

Sensor Solutions for Automotive Sensor Market

Renesas' best-in-class automotive sensor signal conditioning (SSC) ICs are optimized to withstand harsh automotive environments that require low supply current to reduce power consumption (critical for PHEV, BEV and FCEV vehicles), and provide excellent electromagnetic compatibility and ESD protection. In addition, these SSCs products offer digital compensation of inherent sensor offset, sensitivity, temperature drift, and nonlinearity covering a wide operational temperature range according to the AECQ-100 standard (–40 °C to +150 °C).

In order to support ASIL requirements according to ISO 26262, multiple diagnostic and monitoring functions have been implemented on the SSCs to support OEMs and automotive sensor module suppliers. This ensures the SSCs support safety-critical sensor applications linked to transmission and braking, as well as other applications such as DPF, EGR and HVAC.

Renesas' SSCs are compatible with multiple pressure sensor types, such as piezoresistive MEMS, ceramic and strain gauge for correct measurement of absolute, gauge/barometric and differential pressure. Renesas' SSCs support high temperature sensing using thermocouples.

These SSCs support various external temperature sensors, namely diode, RTD, TCR and internal PTAT for correct temperature measurements. The output interfaces supported by SSCs include Analog, SENT, LIN, PWM and I²C.

The end-of-line calibration of SSCs, supported via the output pin, uses one-wire interface (OWI) to reduce test time, ensuring calibration equipment communicates digitally. Digital calibration helps keep the customer's overall assembly costs low, as trimming of sensing elements by external devices or lasers is not needed.  The new generation of SSCs enables customers to easily create a wide variety of sensor platforms by offering drop-in-compatibility and identical Pin and Pad layout when using the ZSSC41xx family.

The SSC evaluation kits are designed to provide an overview of the functions and configuration options for Renesas' SSC IC family. These kits provide support for new and experienced users in the evaluation and design of their sensor modules.

About Sensor Signal Conditioners

Most analog signals require some form of preparation before they can be digitized. Sensor signal conditioning is the manipulation of a sensor signal in a way that prepares it for the next stage of processing. Renesas' sensor signal conditioner ICs typically interface with two main sensor types: resistive bridges and differential capacitors. For each sensor type, further specialization allows selecting the optimal balance between price and performance for the required operating voltage and temperature range, gain, resolution, input/output format, and qualification level. Renesas' SSC ICs offer digital compensation of sensor offset, sensitivity, temperature drift, and nonlinearity in wide operational temperature ranges.