Addressing IoT and Industry 4.0 sensor backplane needs with an embedded smart analog architecture

by Rafael Mena - Embedded.com, Apr. 11, 2016 – 

The Internet of Things (IoT) sensor backplane is driving a need to associate multiple sensor inputs into a single node in order to minimize the workload on the wireless gateway and enable unobtrusive and cost effective form factor solutions. These are also needs as defined by Industry 4.0 requirements where intelligent network sensors are called upon to provide fully automated control environments in an industrial factory setting, accounting for multiple sensed parameters. These parameters include temperature, pressure, flow, position and more. The sensor backplane is also called upon to support the PHY layer interface to wired communication protocols minimizing the number of system components.

This bimodality requires that the node interface manage various input and output signals and as a result manage different signal conditioning solutions. In this paper we discuss the benefits of a configurable analog architecture integrated into a 16-bit microcontroller (MCU) which provides for the signal conditioning requirements of various sensor nodes. The modular analog architecture is configurable via register settings and enables dynamic interfacing across different analog modules and through the microcontroller for additional data processing. Provided are several signal conditioning circuit examples enabled by the configurable sensor interface as required in many IoT and Industry 4.0 sensor backplanes and comparison of actual circuit results with corresponding SPICE simulations of the signal conversion.

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