Datasheet

SBOA102A
January 2005
Sensor-Emulator-EVM
System Reference Guide
4
1.0 Introduction to
The Sensor Emulator
Q: What is the sensor emulator?
A: The sensor emulator is a design that uses rotary switchesand
potentiometers to emulate the operation of a resistive bridge sensor at
discrete operating points, for voltage excitation applications.
Q: Why use the sensor emulator?
A: Once the sensor emulator has been programmed, it allows the user to
cycle through a set of sensor output conditions very quickly. Doing this
with a real sensor can be extremely time consuming because it can take
several hours to cycle through various temperatures. Also, somesensors
have non-repeatability issues. For example, pressure sensors can have
pressure hysteresis and temperature hysteresis. The emulator does not
have non-repeatability issues (repeatability errors are typically less then
0.03%). This approach allows the user to program the sensor signal
conditioning chip many different ways to quickly and easily assess the
optimal calibration settings for a given application.