A thermal absolute-pressure sensor of the heated microbridge type has been integrated with an active bias circuit and an 8-b successive-approximation register A/D converter. The chip, which contains about 1000 devices, is sensitive to variations in absolute gas pressure between 10 and 10(4) Pa, and it is implemented in a 4-mu-m NMOS technology merged with the microsensor process. The output of the chip is a robust digital signal adequate for transmission in high-noise environments.