Low power precision analog microcontroller, ARM cortex M3 with dual sigma-delta ADCs

The ADuCM360 is a fully integrated, 3.9 kSPS, 24-bit data acquisition system that incorporates dual high performance, multichannel sigma-delta (Σ-Δ) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), a 32-bit ARM Cortex™-M3 processor, and Flash/EE memory on a single chip. The ADuCM360 is designed for direct interfacing to external precision sensors in both wired and battery-powered applications. The ADuCM361 contains all the features of the ADuCM360 except that only one 24-bit Σ-Δ ADC (ADC1) is available.

The ADuCM360/ADuCM361 contain an on-chip 32 kHz oscillator and an internal 16 MHz high frequency oscillator. The high frequency oscillator is routed through a programmable clock divider from which the operating frequency of the processor core clock is generated. The maximum core clock speed is 16 MHz; this speed is not limited by operating voltage or temperature.

The microcontroller core is a low power ARM Cortex-M3 processor, a 32-bit RISC machine that offers up to 20 MIPS peak performance. The Cortex-M3 processor incorporates a flexible, 11-channel DMA controller that supports all wired communica-tion peripherals (SPI, UART, and I2C). Also integrated on chip are 128 kB of nonvolatile Flash/EE memory and 8 kB of SRAM.

The analog subsystem consists of dual ADCs, each connected to a flexible input mux. Both ADCs can operate in fully differential and single-ended modes. Other on-chip ADC features include dual programmable excitation current sources, diagnostic current sources, and a bias voltage generator of AVDDREG/2 (900 mV) to set the common-mode voltage of an input channel. A low-side internal ground switch is provided to allow power-down of an external circuit (for example, a bridge circuit) between conversions.

The ADCs contain two parallel filters: a sinc3 or sinc4 filter in parallel with a sinc2 filter. The sinc3 or sinc4 filter is used for precision measurements. The sinc2 filter is used for fast measure-ments and for the detection of step changes in the input signal.

The devices contain a low noise, low drift internal band gap ref-erence, but they can be configured to accept one or two external reference sources in ratiometric measurement configurations. An option to buffer the external reference inputs is provided on chip. A single-channel buffered voltage output DAC is also provided on chip.

The ADuCM360/ADuCM361 integrate a range of on-chip peripherals, which can be configured under microcontroller software control as required in the application. The peripherals include UART, I2C, and dual SPI serial I/O communication controllers; a 19-pin GPIO port; two general-purpose timers; a wake-up timer; and a system watchdog timer. A 16-bit PWM controller with six output channels is also provided.

The ADuCM360/ADuCM361 are specifically designed to operate in battery-powered applications where low power operation is critical. The microcontroller core can be configured in a normal operating mode that consumes 290 μA/MHz (including flash/ SRAM IDD). An overall system current consumption of 1 mA can be achieved with both ADCs on (input buffers off), PGA gain of 4, one SPI port on, and all timers on.

The ADuCM360/ADuCM361 can be configured in a number of low power operating modes under direct program control, including a hibernate mode (internal wake-up timer active) that consumes only 4 μA. In hibernate mode, peripherals such as external interrupts or the internal wake-up timer can wake up the device. This mode allows the part to operate with ultralow power and still respond to asynchronous external or periodic events.

APPLICATIONS

* Industrial automation and process control

* Intelligent precision sensing systems

* 4 mA to 20 mA loop-powered smart sensor systems

* Medical devices, patient monitoring

* Analog input/output

* Dual (24-bit) ADCs

* 6 differential or 12 single-ended input channels

* Programmable Gain Amplifiers (PGA) (1-128) for each ADC

* Flexible input MUX for input channel selection to both ADCs

* Buffers for external reference connection

* Programmable sensor excitation current sources

* On-chip precision voltage reference

* Single 12-bit voltage output DAC

* NPN mode for 4 mA to 20 mA loop applications

* Microcontroller

* ARM Cortex-M3 32-bit processor

* Serial wire download and debug

* Internal watch crystal for wakeup timer

* 16 MHz oscillator with 8-way programmable divider

* Memory

* 128 kB Flash/EE Memory, 8k Bytes SRAM

* In-circuit debug/download via Serial Wire and UART