Renesas Electronics today introduced the ZSSC3240 sensor signal conditioner (SSC) – the newest member of its leading-edge SSC portfolio. The ZSSC3240 delivers high accuracy, sensitivity, and flexibility for sensor applications such as resistive pressure sensors and medical infrared thermometers. This new SSC features best-in-class performance and speed with up to 24 bits analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) resolution.

With a flexible sensor front end and a broad range of output interfaces, the ZSSC3240 can be used for nearly all types of resistive and absolute voltage sensor elements, enabling customers to develop complete sensing platforms from a single SSC device. This combination plus its small size makes the ZSSC3240 ideal for use with a wide variety of sensor-based devices for the industrial, consumer, and medical markets, including industrial pressure transmitters, HVAC sensors, weight scales, factory automation devices, smart meters, and continuous smart health monitors.

Micro-machined and silicon-based sensing elements provide mostly non-linear and very small signals, requiring special technologies to convert the sensor signal into a linearized output. The ZSSC3240 SSC facilitates both the design and production of sensor interfaces by providing programmable, highly accurate, wide gain and quantization functions combined with powerful, high-order digital correction and linearization algorithms. High performance, and flexible sensor front end configuration and analog output options enable easy sensor platform design using a single IC. This allows customers to leverage the SSC cost effectively for a wide variety of sensor elements that have different characteristics.

Key Features of the ZSSC3240 SSC

  • Superior accuracy for compensated sensor results with up to 24 bits ADC resolution
  • High-gain analog front end supporting up to 540 volt per volt (V/V)
  • Integrated 26-bit DSP for high-precision sensor calibration
  • 4-20 milliamps (mA) current loop output, analog voltage outputs, and digital interfaces as I2C, SPI and OWI
  • On-chip diagnostics for medical and safety applications

Availability

The ZSSC3240 SSC is available now in a 4mm x 4mm, 24-lead QFN package with prices starting at $1.57 USD per unit in 10,000-unit quantities. The SSC is also available in bare die format.

For more information on the ZSSC3240 SSC, including technical documentation and tools, please visit www.idt.com/ZSSC3240.