MAX1358/MAX1359/MAX1360
16-Bit Data-Acquisition Systems with ADC, DACs,
UPIOs, RTC, Voltage Monitors, and Temp Sensor
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ambient is negligible. For the four and eight measurement methods, the ratio of currents used in the diode
calculations is precisely known since the ADC measures the resulting voltage across the same sense
resistor. See Figure 15 for a block diagram of the temperature sensor.
Two-Current Method
For the two-current method, currents I1and I2are
passed through a p-n junction. This requires two V
BE
measurements. Temperature measurements can be
performed using I1and I2.
where k is Boltzman’s constant. A four-measurement
procedure is adopted to improve accuracy by precisely
measuring the ratio of I1and I2:
1) Current I1is driven through the diode and the series
resistor R, and the voltage across the diode is measured as V
BE1
.
2) For the same current, the voltage across the diode
and R is measured as V1.
3) Repeat steps 1 and 2 with I
2
. I1is typically 4µA and
I
2
is typically 60µA (see Table 22).
Since only four integer numbers are accessible from the
ADC conversions at a certain voltage reference, the previous equation can be represented in the following manner:
where N
V1
, NV2, N
VBE1
, and N
VBE2
are the measure-
ment results in integer format and V
REF
is the reference
voltage used in the ADC measurements.
Four-Current Method
The four-current method is used to account for the
diode series resistance and trace resistance. The four
currents are defined as follows; I
1
, I2, M1I1, and M2I2. If
the currents are selected so (M1- 1)I1= (M2- 1)I2, the
effect of the series resistance is eliminated from the
temperature measurements. For the currents I1= 4µA
and I
2
= 60µA, the factors are selected as M1= 16 and
M2= 2. This results in the currents I3= M1I1= 64µA
and I
4
= M2I2= 120µA (typ). As in the case of the twocurrent method, two measurements per current are
used to improve accuracy by precisely measuring the
values of the currents.
1) Current I1is driven through the diode and the series
resistor R, and the voltage is measured across the
diode using the ADC as NVBE1.
2) For the same current, the voltage across the diode and
the series resistor is measured by the ADC as NV1.
3) Repeat steps 1 and 2 with I2, I3, and I4.
The measured temperature is defined as follows:
where V
REF
is the reference voltage used and:
External Temperature Sensor
For an external temperature sensor, either the two-current or four-current method can be used. Connect an
external diode (such as 2N3904 or 2N3906) between
pins AIN1 and AGND (or AIN2 and AGND). Connect a
sense resistor R between AIN1 and AIN2. Maximize R
so the IR drop plus VBEof the p-n junction [(R x
60µA)+VBE] is the smaller of the ADC reference voltage
or (AVDD- 400mV). The same procedure as the internal
temperature sensor can be used for the external temperature sensor, by routing the currents to AIN1 (or
AIN2) (see Table 21).
For the two-current method, if the external diode’s
series resistance (RS) is known, then the temperature
measurement can be corrected as shown below:
Temperature-Sensor Calibration
To account for various error sources during the temperature measurement, the internal temperature sensor is
calibrated at the factory. The calibrated temperature
equation is shown below:
T
A
= g x T
MEAS
+ b
where g and b are the gain and offset calibration values, respectively. These calibration values are available for reading from the TEMP_CAL register.
Voltage Reference and Buffer
An internal 1.25V bandgap reference has a buffer with
a selectable 1.0V/V, 1.638V/V, or 2.0V/V gain, resulting