ADCs offer the industry's widest analogue supply, claim TI

28th January 2014

Nat Bowers

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Expanding its Successive Approximation Register (SAR) ADC product portfolio, Texas Instruments has introduced a family of 12 devices which the company claim offer the industry’s widest analogue supply and common-mode voltage ranges. The ADS8881 family is suitable for a variety of high-end industrial, such as high-performance test and measurement equipment, precision metrology and precision sensor transmitters for industrial automation, and battery-operated test and measurement and portable medical applications.

The 1-channel ADS8881 family is comprised of 12 high-performance and ultra-low power 18-bit and 16-bit SAR ADCs with speeds from 100kSPS to 1MSPS, enabling engineers to choose the right ADC for their designs in a variety of applications.

Featuring an analogue supply voltage range of 2.7-3.6V, three times wider than existing devices, the ADS8881 family enables direct operation from a Lithium-Ion battery. An even wider digital supply voltage range of 1.65-3.6V allows the ADCs to meet the supply requirements of most microprocessors. Suitable for pulsed DC measurements in portable medical and heat-sensitive automated test applications, the 1MSPS SAR ADCs consume just 5.5mW of power at 1MSPS and 55uW at 10kSPS.

Many members of the ADS8881 family provide an input common-mode range 20 times wider than other devices, simplifying signal conditioning. Additionally, this enables system designers to more easily digitise the difference between two independent sensor signals with widely varying common-mode voltage values over time. Enabling engineers to reuse the same analogue signal chain design across their products with minimal redesign, all 12 devices are pin-compatible and available in both MSOP and QFN package options.

In order to speed time-to-market, Texas Instruments offers a range of support tools for the ADS8881 family. This offering includes reference designs, simulation models and hardware evaluation kits. Enabling system designers to quickly evaluate and test device performance using only the provided hardware and TI’s ADCPro software tool, the ADS8881EVM-PDK, ADS8861EVM-PDK and ADS8860EVM-PDK performance development kits can be purchased for $199 (USD).

Supplied in 10-pin, 3x4.9mm MSOP and 3x3mm QFN packages, the ADC8881 family is available now with prices starting from $5.00 (USD) each in 1,000 unit quantities.