AD5160
PROGRAMMING THE POTENTIOMETER DIVIDER
Voltage Output Operation
ESD PROTECTION
All digital inputs are protected with a series input resistor and
parallel Zener ESD structures shown in Figure 39 and Figure 40.
This applies to the digital input pins SDI, CLK, and
The digital potentiometer easily generates a voltage divider at
wiper-to-B and wiper-to-A proportional to the input voltage at
A-to-B. Unlike the polarity of VDD to GND, which must be
positive, voltage across A-B, W-A, and W-B can be at either
polarity.
CS
.
340Ω
LOGIC
V
SS
If ignoring the effect of the wiper resistance for approximation,
connecting the A terminal to 5 V and the B terminal to ground
produces an output voltage at the wiper-to-B starting at 0 V up
to 1 LSB less than 5 V. Each LSB of voltage is equal to the
voltage applied across terminal AB divided by the 256 positions
of the potentiometer divider. The general equation defining the
output voltage at VW with respect to ground for any valid input
voltage applied to terminals A and B is
Figure 39. ESD Protection of Digital Pins
A,B,W
V
SS
Figure 40. ESD Protection of Resistor Terminals
D
256
256 − D
256
VW (D) =
VA
+
VB
(3)
TERMINAL VOLTAGE OPERATING RANGE
The AD5160 VDD and GND power supply defines the boundary
conditions for proper 3-terminal digital potentiometer
operation. Supply signals present on terminals A, B, and W that
exceed VDD or GND will be clamped by the internal forward
biased diodes (see Figure 41).
For a more accurate calculation, which includes the effect of
wiper resistance, VW, can be found as
RWB (D)
256
RWA (D)
256
VW (D) =
VA
+
VB
(4)
V
DD
Operation of the digital potentiometer in the divider mode
results in a more accurate operation over temperature. Unlike
the rheostat mode, the output voltage is dependent mainly on
the ratio of the internal resistors RWA and RWB and not the
absolute values. Therefore, the temperature drift reduces to
15 ppm/°C.
A
W
B
V
SS
Figure 41. Maximum Terminal Voltages Set by VDD and VSS
SPI COMPATIBLE 3-WIRE SERIAL BUS
The AD5160 contains a 3-wire SPI compatible digital interface
CS
(SDI, , and CLK). The 8-bit serial word must be loaded MSB
POWER-UP SEQUENCE
first. The format of the word is shown in Table 5.
Since the ESD protection diodes limit the voltage compliance at
terminals A, B, and W (see Figure 41), it is important to power
VDD/GND before applying any voltage to terminals A, B, and Wꢀ
otherwise, the diode will be forward biased such that VDD will be
powered unintentionally and may affect the rest of the user’s
circuit. The ideal power-up sequence is in the following order:
GND, VDD, digital inputs, and then VA/B/W. The relative order of
powering VA, VB, VW, and the digital inputs is not important as
long as they are powered after VDD/GND.
The positive-edge sensitive CLK input requires clean transitions
to avoid clocking incorrect data into the serial input register.
Standard logic families work well. If mechanical switches are
used for product evaluation, they should be debounced by a
CS
flip-flop or other suitable means. When
is low, the clock
loads data into the serial register on each positive clock edge
(see Figure 36).
The data setup and data hold times in the specification table
determine the valid timing requirements. The AD5160 uses an
8-bit serial input data register word that is transferred to the
CS
internal RDAC register when the
Extra MSB bits are ignored.
line returns to logic high.
Rev. 0 | Page 13 of 16