ANALOG DEVICES’ AMPLIFIER TECHNOLOGY SIMPLIFIES INSTRUMENTATION AND INDUSTRIAL CONTROL DESIGN

ANALOG DEVICES' AMPLIFIER TECHNOLOGY SIMPLIFIES INSTRUMENTATION AND INDUSTRIAL CONTROL DESIGN

Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI), a global leader in high-performance semiconductors for signal processing applications and market leader in amplifier ICs, has introduced a zero-drift, digitally-programmable instrumentation amplifier. Rated over an extended industrial temperature range, the AD8231 is suited for a variety of sensors, including resistance temperature detectors, thermocouples and automotive pressure sensors, in harsh environments where minute signal variations must be accurately detected in the presence of large common-mode voltages.

ADI’s AD8231 programmable gain in-amp brings reliability, convenience and performance to industrial sensor interfaces.

Using a three-operational amplifier (op-amp) instrumentation architecture, the AD8231 enhances reliability by integrating auto-zero amplifiers to maintain a voltage offset of only 50 nV/°C across temperature and over years of operation.The AD8231 features 80 percent lower input noise than competing devices while delivering rail-to-rail inputs and outputs at up to 1-MHz bandwidth—five times the throughput of the nearest competing zero-drift in-amp.

“Zero-drift instrumentation amplifiers can have high noise at high gains for a variety of reasons, including the presence of chopping noise,” said Steve Sockolov, product line director, Precision Signal Processing, Analog Devices. “However, the trade-off between offset drift and noise becomes untenable as the gain increases to the level demanded by today’s industrial equipment manufacturers. Analog Devices addressed this challenge using a proprietary auto-zero technique that dramatically lowers the in-amp’s noise profile while eliminating the need for external components, such as switched capacitors.”