TI intros SAR ADC with intelligent system power management

DALLAS, USA: Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has introduced the 12-bit ADS7924 successive approximation (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Through intelligent system power management features, the 2.2-V ADS7924 works with any low-power system requiring sensor monitoring to potentially lower power across the system by more than 50 percent.

Once programmed through its I2C interface, the device can operate independently, periodically waking itself to scan all four ADC channels while using only 5 uW. This frees the MCU to process other activities or power down entirely to yield significant power savings in energy harvesting, medical, communications, remote sensor signal monitoring, and portable applications.

Key features and benefits of the ADS7924
* The ADS7924 uses only 5 uW of power when programmed to scan all four channels every 10 ms for the lowest power consumption of any quad channel 12-bit ADC.
* For applications requiring additional signal conditioning, the device can share one operational amplifier for all four channels. The ADS7924 can wake up and shut down the op amp to synchronize with the sampling and conversion timing of the ADS7924 for additional power savings.
* Maximize the ADS7924's performance for energy harvesting and portable medical, communications, and remote sensor signal monitoring applications using TI's ultra-low power MSP430™ MCU platform.

The ADS7924 is sampling in a 24-pin, 3-mm x 3-mm QFN package and is priced at $1.25 in 1,000-unit quantities. TI's ADS7924EVM and ADCPro modular software system for evaluating analog-to-digital converters combine to help designers rapidly evaluate systems to speed time to market. The ADS7924EVM is priced at $49.