
Sensor Fundamentals 11
upon a particular sensor. In this process, all contributory errors are consid-
ered systematic (see Chapter 7 in [3] for detailed uncertainty analysis). This
particular type of uncertainty is known as the design-stage uncertainty, u
d
,
which is analogous to the combined standard uncertainty. Often it is used
to choose a sensor that meets the accuracy required for a measurement.
Very seldom does the sensor alone comprise the entire measurement sys-
tem. Its output often is transduced and conditioned before reading. Thus,
the uncertainty of the sensor per se is only one uncertainty in many that
needs to be considered to arrive at ...