Texas Instruments has introduced two bipolar, 12bit, 1Msample/s SAR (successive approximation register) ADCs for programmable logic control and data acquisition. The four-channel ADS8634 and eight-channel ADS8638 operate in temperatures up to 125°C. The ADCs support input ranges of ±12, ±10, ±5, ±2.5, 0 to 5, and 0 to 10V. The company claims that the digital interface supports 1.8 to 5V hosts without additional level-shifting circuitry. The addition of dual-alarm threshold logic/channel and alarm output is claimed to minimise the number of host accesses required in monitoring applications. The company offers tools and support to speed development with the ADCs, including an IBIS (input output buffer information specification) model, anti-aliasing filter tool for data converters, and an op amp-to-ADC circuit topography calculator. A performance development kit, including all circuitry, software and source code, is also available to evaluate the performance of both parts. According to the company, the ADS8638EVM-PDK Perl development kit enables ADC performance evaluation via ADCPro, a modular software system for evaluating ADCs without logic analysers and complex analysis routines. The ADCs are available in a 4x4mm QFN package.
