电子学革命也许是数字的,而自然界是模拟的。自然界规律的表现形式,如温度、压力和光等,为电子系统提供了输入信号。由于电子技术还在继续广泛地深入到工业、军事和商业部门等领域,传感器在数字与模拟的联系方面也越来越显得重要。所以传感器技术很自然地转向集成电路技术,以增加新功能。集成传感器,或叫微传感器,越来越象一种集成电路,因为它增加了电子功能。有一个时期,美国传感器市场的全年产值接近十亿美元,并以每年15％的速度增长,而固体传感器占了整个市场的五分 The revolution in electronics may be digital, and nature is analog. The manifestation of the laws of nature, such as temperature, pressure and light, provide the input signal for the electronic system. As electronic technology continues to go widely into the industrial, military, and commercial sectors, sensors are becoming more and more important in relation to digital and analogue. So sensor technology turns naturally to integrated circuit technology to add new functionality. An integrated sensor, or micro-sensor, is more and more like an integrated circuit because it adds electronic functionality. In one period, the sensor market in the United States had an annual output of nearly a billion dollars and grew at a rate of 15% a year, while solid state sensors accounted for a fifth of the market