powerZONE Products for the week of September 6, 2004
Intersil Says . . .
ISL60002: 1.5-µW, 1.25-V & 2.5-V FGA Precision
References
Sub 1.5 µW consumption ideal for high accuracy portable data acquisition
systems
Intersil Corporation, a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog solutions, announced new 1.25 V and 2.5 V additions to its rapidly expanding line of ultra low power precision voltage references. Intersil's ISL60002 voltage references bring the precision performance standards previously available only in laboratory equipment to portable & battery-operated systems.
The low, sub 1.5 µ-watt power consumption of Intersil's ISL60002, 400 nA @ 2.7 V(IN), allows the voltage references to remain powered on continuously by the system battery. By operating the reference continuously biased, 12 to 24 bit battery powered data acquisition circuits that normally disable the reference between conversions can now provide the highest accuracy and lowest possible long-term drift by eliminating the effects of initial accuracy changes and the time delay as the reference settles to its final value.
"Voltage References achieve their highest accuracy after initial
stabilization has taken place and, depending on device technology, may require
a significant time delay after power is applied," commented Jules Farago,
marketing manager for Intersil's Xicor Products. "Systems using battery
power will benefit greatly from having an accurate, stable reference that
essentially presents no load to the battery and Intersil's ISL60002 family
with ultra low, sub 1.5 µ-watt power consumption are the first high
precision voltage references that make it practical to leave the reference
continuously biased, even in battery-operated circuits.
analogZONE Says...
These are extremely high-precision voltage references that I have never seen before in non-lab equipment. They bring to portable equipment the ability to properly get into 16-bit to 24-bit accuracy and they will make a huge difference in getting much higher grade medical systems.
Two versions of the ISL60002 are offered, at 1.25 V and 2.50 V. They are discrete parts, not just a 2.5 V device with a halved-output voltage version offered for 1.25 V. There are two grades of each, a "C" version that offers ±2.5 mV accuracy and a "D" version with ±5.0 mV accuracy. Tempco is 20 ppm/°C from -40°C to +85°C. The line regulation over an input voltage range of +2.7 V to +5.5 V is a maximum of 250 µV/V, while load regulation is 60 µV/mA sinking or sourcing up to 7 mA.
These references uses a floating-gate analog technology that was developed at Xicor and is one of the benefits Intersil received with Xicor's acquisition. The basic trimming technology dates to research by L R Carley at Carnegie-Mellon University in the 1980s.
These parts will completely change the nature of portable products, both medical and in devices such as digital instrumentation and data acquisition systems. It is a major breakthrough in voltage reference design. If Intersil can later move the technology into ADCs they will have a powerful range of products on their hands.
The ISL6002 is in production in both SOT-23-3 and SOIC-8. The "C" grades are priced at $1.45 in SOT and $1.50 in SOIC, while the "D" grades are $0.95 and $0.99, all in 1000-piece lots.