The 100-kSPS ADS8201 from Texas Instruments is a complete on-chip data acquisition system that draws only 600µA of supply current at 2.2V. The company says that this results in up to 75% power savings over discrete implementations. System-processing capability is possible with the integrated analogue signal chain of four chips in one device; reducing space, cost, power consumption and design time in portable communications and medical applications, as well as transducer interfaces, and GPS-based and sensor data acquisition systems. The chip integrates a 12bit, capacitor-based, successive register ADC; a high-performance continuous-time programmable gain amplifier; and an automatic-scan, eight-to-one multiplexer with breakout to allow for system flexibility. High-impedance programmable gain amplifier and channel mapping allow for direct interface with a variety of sensors and for user-configurable gain per channel. A high-speed, wide-voltage serial interface simplifies serial port design. Single-ended and differential-ended inputs allow a wide variety of interface options. An eight-deep FIFO permits flexible data reading while reducing overhead on the microprocessor.
