Extended Information

The analog front end (AFE) is an integrated component that includes a sensor interface, analog signal conditioning (including impedance transformation, programmable gain amplification, filtering, and polarity conversion), an analog multiplexer, sample-and-hold circuitry, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), data cache, and control logic. Some AFEs also come with an MCU, DAC, and various drive circuits. In fact, the AFE constitutes the main part of a data acquisition system (DAS). In the past, AFE-integrated components were implemented on boards, commonly referred to as data acquisition boards. In recent years, various single-chip AFEs have been introduced, effectively making DAS a "system on chip" (SoC).