transzducer

A transducer is a device that converts energy or information from one form to another. In engineering, it usually refers to sensors and actuators that convert physical quantities into electrical signals or vice versa. They enable measurement, monitoring, and control of systems.

They can be classified by energy domains such as mechanical, electrical, optical, thermal, magnetic, or acoustic, and by function as sensors or actuators. Passive transducers generate a signal from the stimulus, while active transducers require external power. Many transducers are sensors converting a physical quantity such as light, pressure, temperature, or acceleration into an electrical signal; actuators or receivers convert electrical energy into motion, light, sound, or force.

The conversion is based on physical effects such as the piezoelectric, thermoelectric, photovoltaic, capacitive, resistive, magnetic, or optical interactions. The output is typically a voltage, current, resistance, capacitance, or a processed digital signal.

Examples include a microphone (sound to voltage), a pressure sensor (pressure to voltage), an accelerometer (motion to voltage), a temperature sensor (temperature to voltage), a speaker (electrical to sound), and a fiber-optic transducer (light to electrical signal).

Transducers are central to instrumentation, medical devices, environmental sensing, industrial automation, consumer electronics, audio and telecommunications, and energy systems.