November 12, 2007 — Microbridge Technologies Inc.‘s new MBW-303 Wheatstone Bridge Offset Conditioning Network. The single-chip device comprises four Microbridge eTC Rejustors (re-adjustable resistors) — which the company says is the world’s first fully analog, passive electronic Temperature Compensation (eTC) dividers — configured in a bridge. Designed for Wheatstone bridge sensors in automotive, healthcare, consumer, and instrumentation markets, the chip compensates for offset errors and offset drift in a Wheatstone bridge, solving the problem at the source.
The MBW-303 promises to simplify the design process, allowing sensor offset calibration and temperature compensation after final assembly, which negates all cumulative errors associated with the assembly processes, such as manufacturing tolerance errors, error introduced by stress, etc. Dynamic adjustment provides cost and labor savings and the networks’ re-adjustability reduces re-work.
“We recognized that many of our rejustor devices have been targeted by customers for sensor calibration and compensation applications,” said Nick Tasker, vice president, Business Development at Microbridge. “This device represents the next step in device integration for these applications. There is a need for higher and higher precision and integration. If precision cannot be maintained over the entire operating temperature range of the sensor, it really isn’t precise. The MBW-303 maintains offset precision over the full operating temperature range.”
The MBW-303 enables adjustment and verification to be performed in a single temperature cycle, the company says. It can operate in temperatures ranging from -40ºC to +150, has a small footprint for high-density applications, doesn’t require power or memory to hold calibration, and doesn’t require an external temperature sensor. The MBW-303 promises precision electrical in-circuit adjustment for ohmic and temperature correcting offset errors. The adjustment process is isolated from the circuit, allowing true, passive in-circuit calibration and compensation.
Available now in a QFN-16 package, the new MBW-303 Bridge is currently sampling and costs $2.67 each in quantities of 1000.