傳感器循環依賴正確的數據轉換器。

　　隨著環境傳感器在消費者和工業應用中的日益廣泛，傳感器選擇正確的數據類型越來越重要。大多數工業系統都是在線路電壓下工作的，因此有足夠的能量進行信號處理，從而使低噪聲地板成為可能。這使得能夠使用更高分辨率轉換器和更大的信號處理參考電壓傳感器。這些較大的范圍允許獲得和跟蹤更多的數據位。

　　另一方面，消費者系統正逐漸轉向電池操作，因此存在功率限制，限制了數據轉換過程的精度和速度。了解轉換器子系統的各種類型，以及它們如何影響傳感器數據，是設計實時M2M系統的關鍵。

　　Understanding data conversion

　　The first step in implementing a sensor system for monitoring and control applications is to understand what sort of data is needed for the system. In most cases， the sensor produces an analog signal as an output. A microcontroller or other， digital logic-based system must process this signal. In order to control a closed-loop system， these logic- and microcontroller-based cores need to have their output converted from digital back to analog in order to drive mechanical systems.

　　A common misperception is that the resolution of the data converter should be the same as the word size of the microcontroller – 8 bits for an 8-bit micro， 16 bits for a 16-bit micro， etc. However， this not the case. The resolution of the data converter should complement the type and size of the signal measured， as well as the sensitivity of the system to the voltage or current levels of the LSB （least significant bit） of the output from the data converter.