In January 2008, FUTEK Engineers began their research and development on the new USB Sensor Solution. The team had originally worked on USB technology for Sensors back in 2004 with FUTEK VCAL, a portable calibration verification platform. The advantage of offering a USB Solution was clear. Sensors with analog output could seamlessly interface with digital devices.
As the diagram below indicates, in order to build a Traditional Sensor System Platform, there are several instruments to consider. An ideal platform will include an Amplifier/Signal Conditioner with an Active Analog Filter which will require an external Power Supply. In addition, a Multi-meter (Display) and Data Storage is necessary. Traditional Sensors Systems also had some short comings including the power consumption, unwanted noise, and voltage drop out, that would occur if cable range between the Amplifier and Display instrument was too long. Even if we disregard the economic factor behind such a platform, the task of integrating these instruments all together is no simple feat.
As the second diagram illustrates, utilizing the USB Solution immediately removes the need for an Amplifier (Signal Conditioner), Analog Filter, Power Supply, and Multi-meter. The advantages, besides the cost, are the High Resolution Digital Output, an Integrated Digital Filter to reduce 50HZ/60HZ as well as high frequency noises, the ability to increase the sampling rate for high speed applications, and capability to store calibration values inside the on-board non-volatile memory (in order to apply the real-time calculation to account non-linearity) and also other configurations which are usually stored in a TEDS chip which is no longer needed.
The presence of a powerful micro-controller beside a high accuracy delta-sigma Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) not only eliminates analog circuitry (that reduces the sensitivity to environment conditions such as temperature, humidity and noise), but also introduces an intelligent digital system which is able to activate internal circuits such as shunt cal, short circuit protection, built in auto-calibration, integrated temperature sensor, sampling rate changer and etc., following the user prompt.
Further more, using the high speed, bi-directional USB link gives the user power to communicate with the sensor by PC based software and monitor/control the functionality of features such as tare, peak, valley and selectable averaging without any need to change the hardware settings manually.
Finally, by integrating the FUTEK USB Sensor Solution, the number of instruments interacting would be limited which makes the setup of such a platform much easier.