Precision Analog Reference Voltage from Smaller, Low-cost Mixed-Signal Devices
by Archana Yarlagadda, Applications Engineer, Cypress Semiconductor
One of the primary challenges engineers face when designing electronic devices is to reduce system size while retaining the feature set. Reduction in size is considered at every step, from transistor size all the way to end product size. Each stage of shrinking, however, doesn’t always carry the same features forward with sometimes less commonly used properties removed to save die area. If those features are particularly required, then the engineer may be forced to use higher sized/priced chips that still retain these features. However, engineers can often innovate to make a lower cost chip perform beyond its basic capabilities while still achieving the required feature set.
Many applications using mixed-signal devices, referred to as Systems on Chip (SoC), convert analog signals into digital and perform operations in the digital domain, or in firmware. Thus, there are many market SoC devices that target applications requiring limited analog capabilities, such as only a comparator and ADC. Given that the end result is in the digital domain, there is frequently no need for analog output pins, which require an analog bus and also analog buffers to provide external drive capability: a large amount of die area can be saved by eliminating these pins.
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