Power

Current-sense amplifier integrates shunt resistor

10th July 2015
Nat Bowers
0

Claimed to be the industry’s first current-sense amplifier to integrate a high-precision, low-drift shunt resistor, which can deliver highly accurate measurements over a wide temperature range, the INA250 has been unveiled by Texas Instruments. This integration also enables lower system cost and a smaller board footprint compared to competitive solutions.

The bi-directional, zero-drift current-sense amplifier supports both low-side and high-side implementations and its accuracy and low drift reduce or may eliminate designers' calibration effort for many systems. Maximum power consumption of 300µA minimises the load that the measurement methodology adds to the system.

By enabling high-accuracy measurement along with low system cost and a small board footprint, the INA250 current-sense amplifier delivers higher performance to applications such as test and measurement, communications load monitoring and power supplies. Test and measurement designers can achieve required performance levels and potentially eliminate calibration while reducing costs by up to 76% and board footprint by up to 66%. High-performance enterprise and telecomms equipment designers can achieve distributed measurement to maximise system efficiency and enhance system management.

The integrated 2mΩ shunt resistor offers 0.1% tolerance as well as low drift of 15pmm/°C, enabling higher performance of the end equipment. The amplifier offers offset current of 12.5mA with temperature drift of 250µA/°C and gain drift of 30ppm/°C. The integrated packaging technology ensures an optimised Kelvin connection between the IC and the resistor. The amplifier enables a maximum error of 0.75% over the temperature range from -40 to +125°C.

The INA250 evaluation module enables designers to quickly and easily evaluate the device’s accuracy. The INA250EVM is available from the TI store and authorised distributors for $49. INA250 TINA-TI and TINA-TI Spice models are available for download. Support is also available in the TI E2E Community Current Shunt Monitors Forum, where engineers can search for solutions, get help, share knowledge and solve problems with fellow engineers and TI experts.

The INA250 current-sense amplifier comes in a 5x6.4mm TSSOP. It is available now, priced at $1.40 in 1,000 unit quantities. Three other gain options will be available in Q4 2015, allowing designers to optimise full-scale output voltage based on the target current range.

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