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National Semiconductor
The A/D Easily Allows Application Note 233
September 1974
Many Unusual Applications
Accommodation of Arbitrary pin should be biased at one-half of the span, which is 1⁄2
(85%–15%) or 35% of the supply. This properly shifts the
Analog Inputs zero and adjusts the full scale for this application. The VIN(−)
Two design features of the ADC0801 series of A/D convert- input can be provided by a resistive divider which is driven by
ers provide for easy solutions to many system design prob- the power supply voltage and the VREF/2 pin should be
lems. The combination of differential analog voltage inputs driven by an op amp. This op amp can be a unity-gain
and a voltage reference input which can range from near voltage follower which also obtains an input voltage from a
zero to 5VDC are key to these application advantages. resistive divider. These can be combined as shown in Figure
In many systems the analog signal which has to be con- 2.
verted does not range clear to ground (0.00 VDC) nor does it This application can allow obtaining the resolution of a
reach up to the full supply or reference voltage value. This greater than 8-bit A/D. For example, 9-bit performance with
presents two problems: 1) a “zero-offset” provision is the 8-bit converter is possible if the span of the analog input
needed — and this may be volts, instead of the few millivolts voltage should only use one-half of the available 0V to 5V
which are usually provided; and 2) the “full scale” needs to span. This would be a span of approximately 2.5V which
be adjusted to accommodate this reduced span. (“Span” is could start anywhere over the range of 0V to 2.5VDC.
the actual range of the analog input signal, from VIN MIN to The RC network on the output of the op amp of Figure 2 is
VIN MAX.) This is easily handled with the converter as shown in used to isolate the transient displacement current demands
Figure 1. of the VREF/2 input from the op amp.
Note that when the input signal, VIN, equals VIN MIN the
“differential input” to the A/D is zero volts and therefore a
digital output code of zero is obtained. When VINequals
VIN MAX, the “differential input” to the A/D is equal to the
“span” (for reference applications convenience, there is an
internal gain of two to the voltage which is applied to pin 9,
the VREF/2 input), therefore the A/D will provide a digital full
scale. In this way a wide range of analog input voltages can
be easily accommodated.
An example of the usefulness of this feature is when oper-
ating with ratiometric transducers which do not output the 00561901
complete supply voltage range. Some, for example, may
output 15% of the supply voltage for a zero reading and 85%
FIGURE 1. Providing Arbitrary Zero
of the supply for a full scale reading. For this case, 15% of
and Span Accommodation
the supply should be applied to the VIN(−) pin and the VREF/2
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FIGURE 2. Operating with a Ratiometric Transducer which Outputs 15% to 85% of VCC
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DACs Multiply and A/Ds Divide with changes in ambient temperature. This can be accom-
plished by making use of low cost 8-bit digital to analog
Computation can be directly done with converter compo- converters (DACs) which are used to introduce a “dither” or
nents to either increase the speed or reduce the loading on small change about the normal operating values of DC
a CPU. It is rather well known that DACs multiply — and for power supplies or other voltages within the system. Now, a
this reason many are actually called “MDACs” to signify single measurement of the ambient temperature and one
“multiplying DAC.” An analog product voltage is provided as A/D converter with a MUX can be used by the microproces-
an output signal from a DAC for a hybrid pair of input sor to establish proper voltage values for a given ambient
signals — one is analog (the VREF input) and the other is temperature. This approach easily provides non-linear tem-
digital. perature compensation and generally reduces the cost and
The A/D provides a digital quotient output for two analog improves the performance of the complete system.
input signals. The numerator or the dividend is the normal
analog input voltage to the A/D and the denominator or the Save an Op Amp
divisor is the VREF input voltage.
In applications where an analog signal voltage which is to be
High speed computation can be provided external to the
converted may only range from, for example, 0VDC to 500
CPU by either or both of these converter products. DACs are
mVDC, an op amp with a closed-loop gain of 10 is required to
available which provide 4-quadrant multiplications (the
allow making use of the full dynamic range (0VDC to 5VDC) of
MDACs and MICRO-DACs™), but A/Ds are usually limited to
the A/D converter. An alternative circuit approach is shown in
only one quadrant.
Figure 5. Here we, instead, attenuate the magnitude of the
reference voltage by 10:1 and apply the 0 to 500 mV signal
Combine Analog Self-Test with directly to the A/D converter. The VIN(−) input is now used for
Your Digital Routines a VOS adjust, and due to the “sampled-data” operation of the
A/D there is essentially no VOS drift with temperature
A new innovation is the digital self-test and diagnostic rou- changes.
tines which are being used in equipment. If an 8-bit A/D
converter and an analog multiplexer are added, these testing
routines can then check all power supply voltage levels and
other set point values in the system. This is a major applica-
tion area for the new generation converter products.
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Save an Op Amp (Continued) All of these functions can be handled by the A/D using the
circuit shown in Figure 6. Here we are making use of the
As shown in Figure 5, all zeros will be output by the A/D for differential input feature and the common-mode rejection of
an input voltage (at the VIN(+) input) of 0VDC and all ones will the A/D to directly encode the voltage drop across the load
be output by the A/D for a 500mVDC input signal. Operation current sampling resistor. An offset voltage adjustment is
of the A/D in this high sensitivity mode can be useful in many provided and the VREF/2 voltage is reduced to 50 mV to
low cost system applications. accommodate the input voltage span of 100 mV. If desired, a
multiplexer can be used to allow switching the VIN(−) input
Digitizing a Current Flow among many loads.
In system applications there are many requirements to moni-
tor the current drawn by a PC card or a high current load Conclusions
device. This typically is done by sampling the load current At first glance it may appear that the A/D converters were
flow with a small valued resistor. Unfortunately, it is usually mainly designed for an easy digital interface to the micropro-
desired that this resistor be placed in series with the VCC cessor. This is true, but the analog interface has also been
line. The problem is to remove the large common-mode DC given attention in the design and a very useful converter
voltage, amplify the differential signal, and then present the product has resulted from this combination of features.
ground referenced voltage to an A/D converter.
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The A/D Easily Allows Many Unusual Applications
Notes
National does not assume any responsibility for use of any circuitry described, no circuit patent licenses are implied and National reserves the right at any time without notice to change said circuitry and specifications.