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Signal conditioning for ADS131E04 AFE input

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: ADS131E04

Hi,
I'd like to use ADS131E04 AFE for simultaneous converting of 3 analog signals from accelerometers. It looks like a great solution because of many features included onboard (clock, PGA, fault monitoring etc). I'm new to analog world, mainly involved in digital circuits since till now, so help would be appreciated :)

Signal

On the accelerometer output there is a 12V biased +-5V signal, so output can vary from 7V up to 17V and is reffered to GND. Bandwidth is 0-10kHz.
This signal can be ac coupled to receive "clean" +-5V output.
Unfortunately when sensor is not connected there is 24VDC present on input terminal.

ADS131E04 supply

I plan to use unipolar 3.3V for both AVDD and DVDD.

ADS131E04 inputs - questions

This AFE offers single-ended and differential modes. Figures 18 and 19 in datasheet shows methods of driving the ADS131E0x and input signals of INP and INN. In my case I assume I should use single-ended mode (because I don't have 180* out-of-phase signal for INN like in description)?

In Absolute maximum ratings table there is line "Analog input to AVSS:  AVSS-0.3 to AVDD+0.3" which means ac coupling of accelerometer signal shouldn't be done and I have to keep signal swing above AVSS (0V because of unipolar supply), is that true?

My another doubt is reffered to Figure 44b of datasheet, which covers Single-Ended Input connection. With internal Opamp I can output common-mode bias voltage (AVDD+AVSS)/2 reffered to AVSS (?). What should be the value of Rf resistor?
R1 and R2 should be chosen to scale down input signal but reffering to AVSS or Vbias? Unfortunately I can't imagine where my reference point is. If I connect INN to Vbias=1,65V [(3,3V+0V)/2] and this is where R2 is connected, my signal swing can be only Vref/2 [1,65 + 2,4/2 =2,85V ]? Looks too much anyway :-/
In this situation my signal looks like "double biased", by sensor at first, and then by AFE.

So maybe this circuit from Figure 44b is good for mains voltage monitoring because it's ac coupled but won't work in my case because input signal is already biased.

What should I do then? Add ac coupling capacitor in signal path and try to use circuit from Figure 44b? Or maybe scale down my signal by factor 12V/1,65V=7,27 and connect INN to AVSS and INP via RC filter to scaled signal? Signal range after scaling would be from 0,96V to 2,34V which is below Vref=2,4V. The problem is 24VDC present on input terminal when sensor is not connected, but it seems to be in range of absolute maximum range when scaled down by factor 7,27.
Unfortunately 0 - 0,96V range of input would be wasted in second case :-/.

Can anyone help? :)

  • After some time I think that ac coupling of sensor signal would be better idea. I would get +-5V signal which should be scaled down to +-1.2V and biased to +1.2V so full-scale signal will be in range 0-2.4V (internal Vref). Vbias would be generated by voltage divider, fed into internal Opamp and routed out as in Fig.44b example.

    Is that ok? :)

    And once again, what should be te Rf value? :)

  • Hi Ireneusz,

    Can you tell us more about your accelerometer, provide a manufacturer and part number perhaps?  We've not had anyone attempt to use the ADS131E04 quite this way before and it sound like an interesting application.  We could certainly take a look at finding a solution for you.

  • Hi :)

    I don't know exact model at the moment (someone else in our company has to select proper one after some physical measurements) but it would be something from IMI Sensors / PCB Piezotronics because of low impedance output - we have to avoid weak signals (i.e. directly from piezo) on cables because of "unfriendly environment".

    Electrically it would be something like their 603c11 model - http://www.pcb.com/spec_sheet.asp?model=603C11
    http://www.synotech.de/images/upload/IMI_131_LowCost_030827.pdf

    Principle of operation is better described here: http://www.dytran.com/go.cfm/en-us/content/tech-education-a10/x

    I have made some simulations recently and found a solution that seemed to work correctly but unfortunately many times something that was 'working' in simulations didn't work on desk so I have to test it 'live'. I mean impedances matching etc.
    It's similiar to Figure 44b from datasheet, with 10uF ac coupling cap between signal source and R1, 1.2V Vref connected to OPAMPP (OPAMP_REF switched to OPAMPP instead of (AVDD+AVSS)/2) for buffering and values R1=1K, R2=300, R3=160 and C=100nF (R3+C as 10kHz lowpass filter). Rf as 0? (not sure).

    R1+R2 resistor divider scales down ac coupled +-5V signal to +-1.154V, which biased at Vbias=1.2V gives input signal swing 0.046..2.354V which should be ok with internal Vref=2.4V

  • I have just tested circuit described above and it doesn't work as I thought. First thing is that R1 and R2 divider was too heavy for my signal generator (I don't have any sensor yet) so I had to change these values for 11,6k and 3,3k respectively. I don't remember exact amplitude values but with R3 and C values like above INP signal was attenuated too fast, once again, maybe it was too heavy load for voltage divider. So I've changed values to R3=68k and C=188pF (4x47pF parallel).

    I have measured Vp-p=f(freq) and got results like this:

    Input sig.[Hz]      Output Vp-p

    1000 2,16
    2500 2,16
    3125 2,08
    4000 2
    5000 1,8
    6250 1,68
    8000 1,52
    10000 1,36
    12500 1,16
    14000 1,08
    16000 1
    18000 0,88
    20000 0,84
    25000 0,7
    40000 0,48

    Cutoff frequency is 12,5kHz and at 10kHz signal Vp-p=1,36V which related to 2,16V is aprox. 0,63. So something is still wrong because at 12,5kHz it should be 1,527 (-3dB). I don't want to increase input circuit resistance too much because of need of sufficient AFE input driving and don't want to move anti-aliasing lowpass filter fc too high because it is quite possible that we will not use maximum sampling rate.

    Has anyone any tips?

    EDIT:

    I have compared above listed results with calculated results for RC lowpass filter with values R=68k and C=188pF and it is just shifted. After recalculation and comparison it looks like my cap is somewhere near 290pF instead of 188. It means that combining a cap from 4 smaller caps wasn't a good idea.

    Freq[Hz] VOUTp-p dB Calculated VOUTp-p
    R=68k C=188pF
    dB Calculated VOUTp-p
    R=68k C=290pF
    dB
    1000 2,16 0 2,16 -0,01 2,15 -0,05
    2500 2,16 0 2,12 -0,17 2,07 -0,37
    3125 2,08 -0,33 2,1 -0,25 2,02 -0,59
    4000 2 -0,67 2,06 -0,42 1,94 -0,94
    5000 1,8 -1,59 2,01 -0,63 1,84 -1,4
    6250 1,68 -2,19 1,94 -0,94 1,71 -2,03
    8000 1,52 -3,06 1,82 -1,49 1,54 -2,94
    10000 1,36 -4,02 1,69 -2,14 1,36 -4,02
    12500 1,16 -5,4 1,53 -3 1,18 -5,26
    14000 1,08 -6,03 1,44 -3,53 1,08 -6,03
    16000 1 -6,69 1,33 -4,22 0,98 -6,87
    18000 0,88 -7,8 1,23 -4,9 0,89 -7,71
    20000 0,84 -8,21 1,15 -5,48 0,81 -8,52
    25000 0,7 -9,79 0,97 -6,96 0,67 -10,17
    40000 0,48 -13,07 0,65 -10,44 0,43 -14,02
  • Hi Tom,

    We have a very similar application.  We would like to use the ADS131AE04 to accept x,y and z signals from the ST Micro LIS344ALH accelerometer.  The signal outputs range from 0V to 2.4V.  We take these single ended outputs and convert them to differential so that the minimum (VIN+) - (VIN-) = -2.4V and the max is +2.4V.  We plan to use an external +2.5V reference with DVDD and AVDD at +3.3V.  

    We have the ADS131AE08 eval board and we've been able to get it to work with the eval board for the sensor.  It seems to work correctly.  Is there anything we need to be aware of using this part in this application?

    Thanks,

    Brianna