Transcutaneous analyte sensor

1. A sensor system for measuring an analyte concentration in a host, the sensor system comprising:

a sensor comprising at least one electrode; and

sensor electronics configured to measure the analyte concentration in the host over the course of a sensor measurement session using the sensor, wherein the sensor electronics comprise a data sampling portion in data communication with the at least one electrode, wherein the data sampling portion comprises an analog portion configured to measure the current flowing at the at least one electrode and to convert the current measurement to a digital value representative of the current, wherein the sensor electronics comprise an integrated circuit that is programmed to request one or more digital values acquired from the data sampling portion at a predetermined time interval, and wherein the predetermined time interval for requesting the one or more digital value from the data sampling portion is configured to be programmable during the sensor measurement session using a hand-held receiver in wireless communication with the sensor electronics.

2. The sensor system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined time interval is between about 2 seconds and 512 seconds.

3. The sensor system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor electronics comprise a transmitter portion for transmitting a signal indicating a level of the analyte in the host at a programmable transmission interval, wherein the programmable transmission interval is a multiple of the predetermined time interval.

4. The sensor system of claim 1 , wherein the data sampling portion comprises a current-to-frequency converter.

5. The sensor system of claim 1 , further comprising a digital filter configured to smooth the digital values.

6. The sensor system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor electronics further comprise a transmitter portion configured to transmit data, wherein the data includes at least one digital value representative of the current.

7. The sensor system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one digital value comprises a filtered digital value.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the data further includes sensor identification information.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the transmission interval is programmable between about 2 seconds and about 10 minutes.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor electronics are configured to measure the current flow in at least a picoAmp range.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a transmitter portion configured to transmit data, wherein the data includes at least one digital value representative of the current and further includes sensor identification information.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the transmitter portion is further configured to verify the identification information encoded with the data.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is further configured to detect one or more glucose data points.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is physically electrically contacted with the sensor electronics.

15. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a receiver configured to determine glucose information corresponding to the sensor signal, and wherein the receiver is configured to output the glucose information.

16. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a receiver operatively coupled to the sensor electronics configured to receive transmitted signals corresponding to the analyte concentration.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the sensor electronics is configured to transmit encoded signals and wherein the receiver is configured to decode the encoded signals received from the sensor electronics.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor electronics further comprise a transmitter portion configured to transmit data, wherein the data comprises at least one of a sensor ID code, status code and a calibration code.