Investigations on Modeling for Sensor Systems with Varied Excitation

Improved information can be gained from one single sensor element by using varied excitations and adequate signal processing. In the reference principle, different working points can be considered in order to perform an automatic self validation of the sensor during operation. A varied excitation can be also different from the measured quantity itself. An electrical, mechanical or thermal excitation can be applied in order to have a set of measurements for the same value of the measured quantity. A simultaneous evaluation of these data provides new possibilities for improving sensory information and reaching better sensor properties such as accuracy, resolution and reliability. For a model based signal processing, an adequate model describing the dependence between the sensor output and the excitation quantity is required. Special care has to be devoted to the process of parameter extraction for a robust calculation of the measured quantity. In this paper different results of fundamental investigations gained during developments of Varied Input Sensor systems (VIS) are described.