Small 16-bit ADCs Offer High Integration

According to Maxim Integrated, its bipolar ±5-V, 16-bit analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs) are the industry’s smallest. The MAX11166 and MAX11167 come in a 9- by 2-mm package. These 12-pin devices integrate a reference with buffer. The company’s beyond-the-rails technology, which supports a ±5-V input signal from a single positive 5-V rail, eliminates the need for negative power supplies and simplifies designs. At 19.5 mW, 500 ksamples/s, and 1 µA in shutdown mode, the ADCs are applicable for precision measurement data acquisition systems (DASs), industrial/process control, medical instrumentation, and automatic test equipment (ATE). The MAX11166 and MAX11167 communicate using an SPI-compatible serial interface at 2.5-V, 3-V, 3.3-V, or 5-V logic levels and have sample rates of 500 ksamples/s and 250 ksamples/s, respectively. The serial interface can be used to daisy-chain multiple ADCs for multichannel simultaneous-sampling applications. It also provides a “busy” indicator option for simplified system synchronisation and timing. Maxim Integrated’s proprietary input-charge-pump architecture allows direct sampling of high-impedance sources, eliminating the need for external analogue buffers to drive the ADC inputs in some applications.