austriamicrosystems AS8510 precision data acquisition front-end IC

austriamicrosystems has announced the AS8510, a high-precision data acquisition front-end IC for motor vehicle battery current, voltage, temperature sense applications and in general for sensor interface applications where precise measurement of small signals close to ground is required.

The sensor interface IC is said to be the first to feature a 16-bit dual-channel ADC + PGA architecture with less than one LSB of offset and noise. It allows systems to be tailored to individual needs making it suitable for a wide range of present and future battery management applications.

The data acquisition front-end IC features two independent analog input channels with 16-bit ADCs, each with individually programmable sampling rates. Each channel has a low-drift programmable gain amplifier for handling ±160 mV signals or 0 to 1 V when bypassing PGA, thus battery currents from the mA range to the kA range can be measured from a 100 µΩ shunt.

A linear sigma delta architecture and wide range of sampling rates allows the device to provide flexible support for electric vehicle applications. The offset auto-zero feature (both channels) allows high accuracy measurements with low value shunt resistance (to 100 µΩ) with negligible insertion loss.

Various operating modes include low power standby with current monitoring for active wake-up.

The AS8510 operates with the current shunt sensor in a 12 V system either at a battery’s ground terminal or at the plus terminal in conjunction with dedicated level shift companion IC, or it can be used as a general-purpose sensor interface for precise measurement of signals close to the ground.

Fully differential inputs allow the capture of differential signals with 300 mV of common mode above ground and 160 mV below ground.