Arctic Silicon Devices’ ADCs Targeted at Medical Ultrasound, Multiple Antenna Radio Systems

(Product News, 2 Apr 2009)

By Stephen Las Marias, Editor

Globalpress Electronics Summit 2009, San Francisco, California – Norwegian analog chip company Arctic Silicon Devices (ASD) has announced its latest series of octal 12-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), the GLACIER family, which is targeted at power reduction in medical ultrasound and multiple antenna radio systems.

Based on the Snowflake family of standard ADCs released in November last year, the new Glacier ADCs feature eight channels of 12-bit ADCs, with speed graded at 20-, 50-, 65-, and 80MSPS. The devices also feature 12-bit and 14-bit LVDS output modes that can be selected through the SPI control interface. Noise performance (SNR) at 50MSPS with 8MHz input frequency and 14bit output is 72.2dB (typical) and 71dB (worst).

The Glacier family of ADCs have power dissipation of 40mW per channel at 50MSPS, including LVDS outputs. To reduce average power dissipation, the ADCs have a Power Down Mode (typically less than 10µW power dissipation) and a wake-up time of 18µs. In addition, the ADCs have a Sleep Mode (power dissipation of at 3mW per channel) with 0.5µs wake-up time.

The Glacier family of ADCs is pin compatible with the ADS527x and ADS528x families from Texas Instruments Inc. According to the company, later versions will also include pin compatibility with the AD9222, AD9212 and AD9252 devices from Analog Devices.

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