Test equipment should always
be ahead of current technology
and capable of meeting future
needs. Across fields, the demand
to improve product qualities
is forcing engineers to design
faster and more sensitive test and
measurement equipment."
Mher Minasyan
Sr. Applications Engineering Group Manager,
National Instruments
to capture a wide range of data, from
air and water quality to emissions and
critical quality parameters in production
processes. This information facilitates
informed decisions that safeguard
environmental health and optimize
production workflows. To this end, a
major consideration for environmental
instrumentation is spatial resolution.
Spatial resolution is a measure of
the level of detail captured in data. It
specifically refers to the smallest distance
between two points that can be distinctly
identified as separate entities in the data
collected by an instrument or sensor.
For example, consider monitoring the
water quality in a water treatment plant.
How many measurement points do you
need to sample in order to obtain a full
picture of what's going on? And how
spatially close do these points need to be
to one another? The greater the spatial
resolution of an instrument, the more
complete picture operators and scientists
can get. Therefore, environmental and
process monitoring instruments also
require high-precision components
capable of capturing many data points
from many sensing locations with minimal
error, in addition to low power and
small footprint.
Analog Devices supports scientific
instrumentation by providing
• A lineup of precision technology,
including amplifiers, data converters,
and voltage references
• Integrated solutions that include front
ends and sensors together for a simpler
and more portable design
• Supporting circuitry for signal chains,
including power management and
communications interface products
• Application-focused reference platforms
14
8 Industry Experts Discuss the Role of Instrumentation in Modern Technology
