Sensor Technology
sensor problems is crucial to avoid issues which range from high maintenance costs to poor customer experiences or even health risks. This is where advanced sensors and integrated diagnostics, built into the analogue front end (AFE) which acts as the bridge between sensors and the building’s broader automation system, come in.
If sensors are the nervous system of intelligent buildings, integrated diagnostics within the AFE are its neurologist.
Integrated diagnostics: keeping building sensors healthy Integrated diagnostics live within the signal chain – between the analogue sensors and the wider microcontrollers – meaning they are connected directly with the sensor and the building’s broader automation network. Given their proximity to the sensors, issues can be detected and flagged as data is being created and gathered, rather than after the fact, resulting in much faster fault detection and response times.
Within commercial buildings, embedded diagnostics can detect sensor faults or issues such as short circuits, thermistor
drift, sensor misplacement, and much more. It’s a built-in health-check, making sure the sensing hardware is working as intended right as measurements are being taken. If things don’t look right, controls can act as needed – for example, keeping a thermostat at a safe temperature – and log issues or raise alerts for review. Crucially, integrated diagnostics are also designed to limit false alarms. They are tuned to understand how sensors should be acting and only raise a clear alert when necessary (rather than for every minor signal issue). They act as systems for both detecting issues and taking action, often giving maintenance teams a headstart on fixing problems.
The bottom-line benefits of embedded diagnostics
Across the lifecycle, embedded self-checks can catch intermittent or slow-developing faults before building users feel the impact. They can log data and guide maintenance based on needs, rather than arbitrary fi xed schedules – resulting in fewer unnecessary call outs or costly emergency responses. Overall, they work to drop the average mean time to repair (MTTR) in commercial environments.
In practice, embedded diagnostics can be transformative. Picture a retailer with dozens of refrigeration units in each of its fifty stores. Just one failing power supply unit (PSU) in each store could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, alongside increased maintenance and energy costs, and even lost trading hours. Embedded diagnostics can detect problems like these before they cascade, enabling swift remediation and minimizing the impact on the business bottom line. In another example, in healthcare environments airflow and pressure changes are critical to maintain sanitation. Integrated diagnostics can rapidly detect sensor issues and raise targeted alerts to ensure the right response, for example directing clinical or maintenance staff to take appropriate action. As a result, staff can better triage their response and ensure patients remain protected.
Beyond reducing costs and accelerating responsiveness, integrated diagnostics simplify building circuitry and hardware requirements. With diagnostics built into the AFE, building designs no longer need stand-alone circuitry for fault detection, further reducing potential fault
surfaces. What’s more, a single AFE can provide diagnostics for a range of different sensors (such as climate, water pressure, light, and more) simplifying production, testing, scalability, and maintenance.
Moving buildings from reactive to proactive
Innovation in embedded diagnostics is part of a broader shift in how building IoT systems function – a shift that takes them from reactive to proactive operation. Or in other words, from damage control to pre-emptive fixes. By providing real-time sensor fault detection within the AFE, integrated diagnostics can drastically reduce downtime, protect occupants, streamline maintenance costs, and simplify building automation. And they can do it all while simplifying hardware and circuitry.
Across industries from retail to healthcare, the foundation for more future-proof, resilient, responsive, and safer buildings are proactive intelligent systems with integrated diagnostics at their heart.
https://www.nxp.com/
www.cieonline.co.uk
Components in Electronics
June 2026 37
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
