Texas Instruments MSC1210 manual Programmable Gain Amplifier PGA, 1.PGA Settings

Models: MSC1210

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Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA)

12.7 Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA)

The Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA) can be set to gains of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, or 128. Using the PGA can actually improve the effective resolution of the ADC.

For example, with a PGA of 1 on a 5V full-scale range, the ADC can resolve to 1V. With a PGA of 128 on a 40mV full-scale range, the ADC can resolve to 75nV. With a PGA of 1 on a 5V full-scale range, it would require a 26-bit ADC to resolve 76nV.

Another way of obtaining gain is by reducing the reference voltage. However, this approach quickly runs into noise limitations (at about 1V), whereby the noise itself becomes a larger component of the sample, thus reducing the benefit of the improved resolution from the lower reference voltage.

The PGA setting is set by modifying the three LSBs of the ADCON0 SFR. These three bits allow the software to set the PGA to any of the eight possible PGA settings listed in Table 12−1.

Table 12−1.PGA Settings

PGA2

PGA1

PGA0

GAIN

 

 

 

 

0

0

0

1 (default)

 

 

 

 

0

0

1

2

 

 

 

 

0

1

0

4

 

 

 

 

0

1

1

8

 

 

 

 

1

0

0

16

 

 

 

 

1

0

1

32

 

 

 

 

1

1

0

64

 

 

 

 

1

1

1

128

For example, the following instructions would have the following effects:

ADCON0 = 0x03; // Set PGA to 8

ADCON0 = 0x05; // Set PGA to 32

Notice that in both of these examples, the instruction will also clear all of the other bits of ADCON0, which may or not be desirable. To set the PGA as in the two previous examples without altering the other ADCON0 bits, the following instructions may be substituted:

ADCON0 = (ADCON0 & ~0x07) 0x03; // Set PGA to 8

ADCON0 = (ADCON0 & ~0x07) 0x05; // Set PGA to 32

Analog-to-Digital Converter

12-9

 

Page 145
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Texas Instruments MSC1210 manual Programmable Gain Amplifier PGA, 1.PGA Settings