Shaping

Sensor signals are often processed, in the analogue domain, by shaping circuits. The purpose is to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, and in the time domain, the shape of the signal. In the frequency domain it can be seen as a bandpass filter limiting the bandwidth to the part of the spectrum with the most favourable signal-to-noise ratio. A typical shaper is a combination of integrating and differentiating functions, often implemented as resistor-capacitor combinations.