Plessey Semiconductors: Electric-potential sensor offers fundamentally new measurement approach

Plessey Semiconductors: Electric-potential sensor offers fundamentally new measurement approach

Based on technology licensed from the University of Sussex, U.K., the EPIC (electrical potential integrated circuit) PS25x01 series sensors are the first to measure changes in an electric field much as a magnetometer detects changes in a magnetic field, requiring no physical or resistive contact to take readings. As such, the sensors enable all sorts of new products, the first being medical devices that are simply held close to a patient’s chest, without wetting or shaving off hair, to obtain a detailed ECG.

Traditional laboratory electrometers and field mills have issues that prevent their widespread use in electric potential sensing. Unlike them, EPIC technology works at normal room temperatures and functions as an ultra-high-input impedance sensor, using active feedback techniques to both lower the effective input capacitance of the sensing element and boost its input resistance. in effect, it is a near-perfect voltmeter, highly stable and able to measure tiny changes in an electric field down to milliVolts.

The basic sensor technology itself has great potential. It could enable devices that can see through walls, control artificial limbs from a simple pad on the skin’s surface, and detect eye muscle movements for new human-machine interfaces, all without the need to implant electrodes. Further, the sensor’s ability to detect movement over distances ranging from a few centimeters to several meters enables applications in security systems and for proximity control of lighting and other electric appliances.

Plessey Semiconductors
Plymouth , U.K.
Sales 858-324-1086

www.plesseysemi.com