The disclosed embodiments relate to a system for transmitting data from a sensor to a host. During operation, the system periodically samples data at the sensor with reference to a sensor clock. Next, the system uses the sensor clock to transmit the data from the sensor to the host, wherein the host operates with reference to a host clock, which is different than the sensor clock. During the transmission process, the system embeds a clock in the data, wherein the embedded clock can be extracted at the host and used to receive the transmitted data. In some embodiments, transmitting the data involves using voltage-mode signaling. In other embodiments, transmitting the data involves using current-mode signaling.