Product category:
Analogue and Mixed Signal ICs
News Release from: Analog Devices | Subject: AD8337
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 24 May 2005
Industrial VGA claims leading specs
The industry's highest bandwidth, lowest power per channel, DC-coupled variable gain amplifier is 50% faster and one-third smaller than competing solutions.
Analog Devices has introduced the industry's highest bandwidth, lowest power per channel, DC-coupled VGA (variable gain amplifier) for industrial and instrumentation applications 50% faster and one-third smaller than competing solutions, ADI's VGA also outperforms other offerings by delivering excellent DC and AC electrical performance
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 14 Sep 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Excellent DC characteristics and high speed make the AD8337 VGA particularly well suited for a wide range of high-channel-count industrial and instrumentation applications, such as PET (positron emission tomography) medical imaging, industrial ultrasound, RF (radio frequency) test instruments, and high performance AGC (automatic gain control) systems.
The AD8337 provides designers of industrial and instrumentation applications with a low-noise (2.2nV/(rt)Hz), single-ended, linear-in-decibels VGA element at frequencies up to 250MHz for improved signal control.
In addition, the device offers the lowest power per channel, requiring 25% less power than competing VGAs.
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The AD8337 is housed in a tiny 3 x 3mm, 8-lead chip scale package (CSP) that occupies one-third less board area than alternatives.
"Designers of single-ended industrial and instrumentation systems who need VGAs require good DC performance and high bandwidth", said Jay Cormier, Product Line Director, Linear Products Group, Analog Devices.
"However, most VGAs available on the market are differential, operate at higher speeds from a single supply, and lack DC performance".
"The AD8337 meets the demands of the industrial marketplace for a VGA with outstanding DC characteristics without sacrificing bandwidth".
The AD8337 topology is an X-Amp structure, ADI's patented circuit technique, with 24dB of gain range and excellent bandwidth uniformity across the entire gain range.
The gain control interface provides precise linear-in-decibels scaling of 20dB/V and can be centred by an output common mode adjust pin.
Operating up to 250MHz bandwidth, the AD8337 is the fastest DC-coupled VGA available, with a high slew rate of 475V/us in a 2V step.
Its power consumption is 78mW from +/-2.5V supplies, which is important in high-channel-count systems, such as PET medical imaging and high-performance AGC systems.
Dual supply operation enables gain control of negative-going pulses, such as those generated by photodiodes or photomultiplier tubes.
The part's output-referred DC offset voltage is less than 20mV over the entire gain control voltage range of 24dB.
An integrated preamplifier at its input, which can be configured with external resistors for any gain greater than 2, allows both inverting and noninverting topologies and thereby enables a dual polarity VGA.
In addition to its low power, the AD8337's low output-referred noise (34nV/rtHz) is advantageous in driving high speed ADCs (analogue-to-digital convertors).
The AD8337 is suitable for driving high speed ADCs such as Analog Devices' AD9215, AD9235, AD9229, AD9410 and AD9432.
The VGA can be controlled by DACs (digital-to-analogue convertors) to drive the variable gain in 8bit (AD5302, AD5308) and 10bit (AD5312/8) space-constrained applications.
The AD8337 is sampling now and available in a 3 x 3mm, 8-pin LFCSP (lead-frame chip scale package).
The VGA is priced at $2.49 per unit in 1000-piece quantities.
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