amount of dielectric absorption in the integrating capacitor.
A good integrating capacitor will result in a reading of
9999, and any deviation from this reading is probably due
to dielectric absorption. Polypropylene capacitors have
been found to be suitable, as have Teflon capacitors.
Polystyrene and polycarbonate capacitors may also be
used in less critical applications.
Auto-Zero Capacitor
The size of the auto-zero capacitor will have a significant
effect on the overall system noise, with larger auto-zero
capacitors resulting in a quieter system. The dielectric
absorption of the auto-zero capacitor affects only the
speed of settling at power-up or recovery from overload
and nearly any capacitor type can be used. The zero
integrator phase of the ICL7135 allows the use of large
auto-zero capacitors while avoiding the “over-range hang-
over” and hysteresis effects that occur in A/D converters
without the zero integrator phase.
Reference Capacitor
Like the auto-zero capacitor, the reference capacitor’s
dielectric absorption is rarely critical. Low dielectric
absorption reference capacitors are only required where
fast settling time is needed in systems with a rapidly
changing reference voltage such as ratiometric ohms
measurement in multimeters.
The reference capacitor DOES need to be a low leakage
capacitor since it must store the reference voltage while
floating during both the signal integrate and the reference
deintegrate phases. Any leakage or charge loss during
these two phases results in an effective change in the
scale factor of the ICL7135. Low cost film capacitors such
as polyester or polystyrene have been found to be suitable
in most applications.
In addition to leakage requirements, another effect that
sets a lower limit on the value of the reference capacitor
is the “charge suckout” caused by stray capacitance on
the reference capacitor terminals. For a negative polarity
input signal, the reference capacitor does not shift its
common mode voltage, but with a positive polarity input
signal it undergoes mode shift equal to the reference
voltage. If there are stray capacitances on the reference
capacitor terminals, some of the charge on the reference
capacitor will be used to charge these stray capacitances
as the reference capacitor makes this common mode
voltage shift. This loss of charge reduces the voltage
on the reference capacitor, and causes positive polarity
signals to have a higher measured result than a corre-
sponding negative voltage. This error can be reduced by
minimizing the stray capacitance on the reference capacitor
terminals, and by increasing the value of the reference
capacitor.
Reference Voltage
The full scale reading of 20,000 will occur when VIN = 2 x
VREF. Since the 20,000 count resolution of the ICL7135
is equivalent to a 50ppm resolution, a high stability
reference is recommended for high accuracy absolute
measurements. Figure 7 shows two suitable methods of
generating the reference voltage.
Rollover Resistor and Diode
The ICL7135 is tested for rollover using the circuit
of Figure 1, with the 100kΩ resistor and diode in the
circuit. The diode is noncritical, and is typically a low
cost 1N4148. The resistor value is dependent on many
factors including integrator swing, clock frequency, and
the amount of rollover error due to “charge suckout” on
the reference capacitor. 100kΩ is the optimum value for
most circuits and is the value used in testing the ICL7135.
Speedup Resistor
The 27Ω speedup resistor in series with the integrat-
ing capacitor adds a pedestal voltage on top of the
integrating capacitor voltage. This pedestal voltage
causes zero crossing to occur earlier than would occur
without the resistor. The effect of the earlier zero crossing
is to give the comparator an overdrive voltage, speeding
its response and reducing the conversion error due to
comparator delay. If the integrator current is changed, the
speedup resistor value should be changed so that the IINT
x RSPEEDUP = 500µV.
Clock Frequency
The clock source should be free of short-term phase and
frequency jitter during the conversion period, but long
term stability is not critical. The clock frequency is chosen
to obtain the desired conversion rate, and to maximize
the normal mode rejection of power line frequency inter-
ference. The conversion rate is directly proportional to
the clock frequency, with each conversion taking 40,002
clock cycles. For maximum normal mode rejection,
Figure 7. External Reference Voltage
ICL7135 41/2 Digit A/D Converter with
Multiplexed BCD Outputs
www.maximintegrated.com Maxim Integrated
│
8
V-
REF HI
6.8 VOLT
ZENER
20
kΩ
6.8kΩ
IZ
V-
ANALOG
COMMON
ICL7135
V-
V+
REF HI
1.2 BANDGAP
REFERENCE
ANALOG
COMMON
ICL7135