Towards networked smart digital sensors: A review

Sensors play pivotal role in instrumentation. With the rapid growth of instrumentation industry, today more and more focus is being laid on network configurations to connect sensors for intelligent and integrated sensing purposes. Besides analog signals, smart sensors can also send transducer electronic data sheet (TEDS) information containing sensor self-identification and description as digital signals via wired or wireless medium. These days more and more vendors are making their sensors TEDS compatible. This paper reviews about the key technology, utilization concept, relevant standards, available instrumentation. A possible extension to the TEDS compatible smart sensors could be to transmit digital signals at chip level.