Introduction

An analog sensor produces an output signal that varies in a known way as a function of the physical property being sensed. Depending on the type of analog sensor, the output signal may be a voltage, current, frequency, phase, etc. This application note provides two examples of acquiring data from analog sensors using a microcontroller (MCU) with an internal Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) peripheral. The first example demonstrates the use of a Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) to measure temperature. The second example demonstrates current measurement in a circuit using a sense resistor. Both examples utilize techniques for minimizing power consumption.