Simple Single Slope ADC:

The circuit above shows a simplified single slope converter circuit, analog signal to be measured is compared with a linear ramp of definite slope (peak and period). The output of the comparator is therefore a pulse signal whose duty / pulse duration is proportional to the magnitude of the input signal. To quantify the pulse duration, the output of the comparator is fed to an AND gate. This output serves as a pulse gating circuit for pulses coming from an Astable multivibrator. A counter is used to count the number of pulses from multivibrator when the gating pulse is high. From this we can conclude that Vin proportional no. of pulses Vin = scaling factor * (no. of pulses) The frequency of the multivibrator and the slope of the ramp generator are carefully selected to have a scaling factor in the range of x1, x10, x100, x1k, and so on for easier approximation of input voltage without further processing (computation). A voltage divider or amplifier with controlled gain may be used at the input to limit the maximum input to be equal to the ramps peak voltage. Here the ramp slope is selected to be 0 5V in 500mS. For a four digit display, an overflow of the display will occur on the 10000th pulse received; this is the maximum no. of pulses that should occur while the ramp voltage is climbing from 0V to 5V. Computing for the Astable Multivibrator frequency Frequency = max no. of pulses / ramp generator Frequency = 10000 / 500mS Frequency = 20 kHz Gain can be calculated as Gain = ramp peak voltage / max Vin voltage 0.000 10.000 V 0.5 00.00 100.00 V 0.05 000.0 1000.0 V 0.005 1mV 10mV 100 mV Ranges 000.0 mV Gain 1000.0 5 Resolution 0.1mV period

Dual Slope ADC:

The output of the integrator on the dual slope ADC, Vc = (-Vin)t/tau (where tau = RC)

-Starting with switch S in the Vin position, the capacitor begins to charge as the integration starts. -As Vc becomes less than zero and continues to decrease, the comparator output is high, allowing the clock to increment the mod 2n counter. -When the MSB switches from one to zero so that the counter is once again all zeros, the flip-flop output goes high, switching S to the -Vr position. -Thus Vc begins to increase from its negative value, and when it crosses the zero point, the comparator output goes low, stopping the clock signal from reaching the counter. -The counter now shows the number of clocks since S was switched to -Vr. This number is proportional to Vin with proportionality constant 2n/Vr, as shown below. -The time that it took from the beginning of the integration when switch S was at Vin to when the counter returned to its zero value is t = 2nTclock The expression for Vc after S has switched to -Vr is Vc = -Vin(2n)Tclock/tau + Vr(t' - 2nTclock)/tau (Where 2nTclock < t' < 2(2n)Tclock )

After S has been at -Vr long enough to make Vc = 0, then the previous equation becomes: 0 = -Vin(2n)Tclock/tau + Vr(t' - 2nTclock)/tau t' - 2nTclock = Vin(2n)Tclock/Vr t' = (Vin/Vr + 1)2nTclock , This is the total time since S was switched to Vin.

The time since S was switched to -Vr is t' - 2nTclock = Vin(2n)Tclock/Vr Thus the number of clocks since S was switched to -Vr is Vin(2n)/Vr which is recorded on the counter. Notice that the number of clocks since S was switched to -Vr is directly proportional to the input analog voltage Vin, and also that there is no tau in the expression, so this method is the most accurate of the integrating ADC's. The total time for one conversion is (Vin/Vr + 1)2n clocks.