Design Note 426: 6-Channel SAR ADCs for Industrial Monitoring and Portable Intruments

Introduction

The 14-bit LTC2351-14 is a 1.5Msps, low power SAR ADC with six simultaneously sampled differential input channels. It operates from a single 3V supply and features six independent sample-and-hold amplifiers and a single ADC. The single ADC with multiple S/HAs enables excellent range match (1mV) between channels and channel-to-channel skew (200ps).

The versatile LTC2351-14 is ideally suited for industrial monitoring applications such as 3-phase power line monitoring to ensure line voltage compliance, portable power line instrumentation, power factor correction, motor control, and data acquisition. These applications may be battery powered, and it is here that the LTC2351-14’s low power and small size are desirable. Power consumption is a mere 16.5mW, which extends battery life. The 3-wire serial interface means fewer pins than parallel output devices, allowing the LTC2351-14 to fi t in a 32-pin, 5mm × 5mm QFN package.

Power Line Monitoring Application

Figure 1 shows a typical power line monitoring application. Current is sensed by a CR Magnetics CR8348-2500-N current transformer. An LT1790-1.25 biases the output of the transformer to the middle of the LTC2351-14 input range, giving the inputs maximum swing. A 6:1 transformer and 41:1 attenuator scale the line voltage, and the transformer output is similarly biased.

Figure 1. Typical Power Line Monitoring Application.

Figure 2 shows the AC line voltage in Linear Technology’s Mixed Signal lab. The flattened peaks are typical of the voltage in an office building where many of the loads are nonlinear, such as computer power supplies. Figure 3 shows the current through a 50W incandescent bulb. Figure 4 shows the current through a 15W compact fluorescent bulb, and Figure 5 is the current through a 4W LED-based bulb. The 5MHz full linear bandwidth of the LTC2351-14 allows analysis of high frequency components of the line voltage and current, limited in this case by the bandwidth of the sense transformers.

Figure 2. Line Voltage.

Figure 3. 50W Incandescent Bulb Current.

Figure 4. 15W Compact Fluorescent Bulb Current.

Figure 5. 4W LED Bulb Current.

Conclusion

With PCB real estate getting tighter and designers always searching for lower power ICs, fast data acquisition can be a challenge. The LTC2351-14 and other low power SAR converters make it possible to optimize solution size, power and cost.

作者

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Steve Logan

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Guy Hoover

Guy Hoover是一名拥有超过30年凌力尔特公司工作经验的工程师,曾担任技术员、IC设计工程师和应用工程师。

T他的职业生涯始于LTC,当时的职位是技术员,并向参与多个产品工作的Bob Dobkin、Bob Widlar、Carl Nelson和Tom Redfern学习,涉及产品包括运算放大器、比较器、开关稳压器和ADC。在此期间,他还花了大量时间来编写测试程序以对这些器件的特性进行表征。

他在LTC的下一段职业生涯是学习PSpice和设计SAR ADC。由Guy设计的产品包括LTC1197系列10位ADC和LTC1864系列12位和16位ADC。

Guy目前是混合信号部的应用工程师,专门从事SAR ADC应用支持工作。这包括为SAR ADC演示板设计、编写Verilog代码和测试程序,帮助客户优化包含LTC SAR ADC的产品,并希望编写有用的应用文章,将有关使用这些器件的知识传递给客户。

Guy毕业于德锐技术学院(现为德锐大学),拥有电子工程技术硕士学位。