Vishay Intertechnology has introduced three new miniaturized infrared (IR) sensor modules for remote-control systems. Featuring modulated carrier output for code learning applications, the Vishay Semiconductors dual-lens TSMP95000 and single-lens TSMP96000 and TSMP98000 combine a wide supply voltage range from 2.0 to 5.5 V with a low typical power consumption of 0.35 mA at 3.3 V. Featuring a new in-house…

Proximity sensors are used to detect something approaching near. These sensors are useful in many applications like collision avoidance, obstacle detection, path following, touchless sensing, motion detection, and object detection. There are different types of proximity sensors like optical, ultrasonic, capacitive, inductive, and magnetic. The capacitive, inductive, and magnetic proximity sensors are used in specific…

Automotive engineers have already developed semi-autonomous vehicles. Fully self-driving vehicles are not far from reality. According to recent research, autonomous driving (AD) could create $300 billion to $400 billion in revenue by 2035. The self-driving car not only showcases how advanced technology is, but it’s also a subject of controversy. There are valid concerns about…

Displaying potentiometer value and temperature using LM35 In my previous tutorial series on displaying sensor data (value) on OLED display, I have explained how to display values of different sensors like a potentiometer, LM35, soil moisture sensor, DHT, HC SR04, etc. on a tiny 1” OLED display. This time, I will demonstrate and explain how…

Several consumer devices now involve temperature monitoring. For example, most of the air conditioners on the market feature climate control, where the AC continuously monitors the ambient temperature of a room and accordingly regulates the air conditioning. Even some digital clocks now have temperature monitors embedded in them. Many other consumer appliances also offer temperature…

The term “Biometrics” is derived from “bio’” which means life, and “metrics”, which means measurement. Biometrics is developing for use in various technologies, including the unique identification and recognition of people. The technology at its current juncture is widely used in security and surveillance systems. Biometrics also has the possibility of converging with other technologies…

Inertial sensors are used to transduce inertial force into measurable electrical signals to measure acceleration, inclination, and vibration of an object. Micromachining technology has made it possible to produce MEMS (Micro Electromechanical System) inertial sensors using single-crystal silicon sensor elements. These micron-sized sensors meet all major system design drivers like low-cost, high performance, high precision,…

Advent of CMOS technology in eighties led to the phenomenal growth in semiconductor industry. Transistors have become smaller, faster, consume less power, and are cheaper to manufacture. It is CMOS technology which has enabled very high integration on the chips leading to modern high performance, miniaturized integrated circuits. Apart from the valuable contribution in miniaturization of integrated circuits, CMOS technology found applications in sensing applications. CMOS technology has been adopted to design sensors, especially in the field of imaging. Due to the wide usage of CMOS based image sensors, CMOS sensors are often considered to be a synonym of CMOS based image sensors and have emerged as a competitor to CCD based image sensors.

SPI and I2C are the common serial communication protocols used by sensors for communicating with microcontrollers and microcomputers. Both protocols are master-slave protocols. The sensors often take the part of a slave device within an embedded ecosystem. Most of the time, a sensor only requires sending data to the microcontroller/microcomputer. This remains true even if…

Light sensors or photosensors, which are designed to measure light intensity, are one of the most commonly used sensors in electronic applications. Light intensity is one of the seven base physical quantities. The measurement of light intensity is useful in many consumer, industrial, and security applications. What is a light sensor? A light sensor is…

Ultrasonic sensors have been a popular method for distance measurement and object detection for many years. Their basic operating principle works by measuring the amount of time it takes for their emitted ultrasonic pulse of sound to bounce off an object and return, hence the name ultrasonic sensor. With the market for autonomous robots, vehicles,…

Temperature is one of the most commonly measured quantities of a device or the conditions surrounding it — and particularly for electronic components. This is because electronic devices and circuitry generate heat and require some type of thermal management. There are several types of temperature sensors that work well for such applications and that offer…

Proximity sensors — often called, proximity switches — detect the presence of nearby objects without making physical contact with them. These objects are called targets. There are several types of proximity sensors, including those used to detect metallic or non-metallic objects. Others are used to detect a specific object.  These sensors also rely on different working…

On 28th March 1979, at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in USA, part of the core melted in the # 2 reactor. The TMI-2 reactor was destroyed. The cause of the accident was the little malfunction in the secondary cooling circuit which allowed temperature in the primary coolant to rise. This caused the reactor to shut down automatically. This situation developed because the level controls turned off the coolant to the reactor when they detected presence of cooling water near the top of the tank. The water at the top was not because of the tank got completely filled, it was because the water was too little in the tank that it got boiled and swelled up to the top of the tank. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the lives of millions across the world. It has caused a significant increase in the awareness of health and better hygiene. As a result, the electronics industry has experienced a rapid demand for touchless devices and appliances, such as contactless sanitizer or soap dispensers and automatic doors. For this…

Use of sensors is pretty common in industries and organizations. But, Internet of Things (IoT) has put the usage of sensors at a completely different level. Again, the entire concept of IoT exists and survived because of sensors. What role does sensors play in IoT? Simply answered, they are the medium through which various physical objects are connected through Internet. IoT platforms function and deliver various kinds of intelligence and data using a variety of sensors. The world has gone digital and “smarter” through the interconnection of things via Internet through sensors. 

We’re making it easier than ever to get started with inductive position sensor technology. Choose from our simple, three-step system for building your own PCB-based sensor or try a pre-built evaluation sensor for rapid prototyping. Sponsored by Microchip Technology

The $2.5 Billion rover of NASA, Curiosity is all set to take the tiniest detail of the planet Mars. The rover is designed to be highly precise in observing its ambient conditions including atmospheric pressure and the gravitational force. For this purpose, it’s Instrumental Control Unit or the ICU has been equipped with pressure sensors. These sensors will help in detecting the Dust Devils that are a characteristic of the planet and will also detail with the concentration of various gases in the atmosphere at various points. Let’s have a look on what makes a pressure sensor capable enough to perform such specific tasks and where else it can be used.A pressure sensor is a device which senses pressure and converts it into an analog electric signal whose magnitude depends upon the pressure applied. Since they convert pressure into an electrical signal, they are also termed as pressure transducers.   

Measuring a voltage in any system is a “passive” activity as it can be done easily at any point in the system without affecting the system performance. However, current measurement is “intrusive” as it demands insertion of some type of sensor which introduces a risk of affecting system performance. Current measurement is of vital importance in many power and instrumentation systems. Traditionally, current sensing was primarily for circuit protection and control. However, with the advancement in technology, current sensing has emerged as a method to monitor and enhance performance.  Knowing the amount of current being delivered to the load can be useful for wide variety of applications. Current sensing is used in wide range of electronic systems, viz., Battery life indicators and chargers, 4-20 mA systems, over-current protection and supervising circuits, current and voltage regulators, DC/DC converters, ground fault detectors, programmable current sources, linear and switch-mode power supplies, communications devices , automotive power electronics, motor speed controls and overload protection, etc. 

‘The world is getting warmer day by day.’ This sentence has started to crop up every now and then in our day to day lives. But seldom do we wonder what it means. What is warmer? How warm is warm? Is it hotter than hot, or just hotter than cold? To our human senses, temperature is only a subjective evaluation. For an objective and reproducible measurement, we need to quantify the temperature values, and to do that, a suitable measurement device is required. This is achieved through the use of temperature sensors. Simply speaking, temperature is the degree of hotness of the body or, a measure of the heat content in the body. The problem to quantify the heat content of the body on a scale did not arise until the invention of the Steam Engine. The curiosity of scientists to understand the behavior of water at different levels of hotness gave rise to a better laid out study.