When optimized for speed, the PCap04 captures sensor measurements up to 50,000 times per second and digitizes them.When the sampling speed is slow to optimize accuracy, the PCap04 can achieve the measurement resolution of 8aF.
The configurability of the device also allows the sensor manufacturer a good trade-off between measurement speed and power consumption in the low-power mode, PCap04 only 4.0μA low current. Amicos Semiconductor has developed a non-external Power demo board, where PCap04 relies on energy collected from RF fields generated by NFC readers such as cell phones.
The PCap04 IC is suitable for any sensing element with varying capacitance. The device has six capacitive measurement channels and is ideally suited for use with other sensing elements such as pressure, force, position, tilt, humidity, weight, level and other Sensory parameters.
The output of PCap04 can be displayed in PWM or PDM as the raw measurement capacitance.The device also features a DSP to help process the sensor measurements and convert it to a digital value via the I2C or SPI interface.It can handle a wide range of input capacitance values and low To 1pF, up to 100nF.
PCap04 offers a variety of built-in configurable options, including support for ground, floating, differential and differential ground sensor connections. DSP can run ams semiconductor open-source and user-generated code for measurements such as linearization and conversion functions. Semiconductor offers an evaluation kit and easy-to-follow software development tools to allow design engineers to develop, test and debug code on the PCap04.
Jose Vinau, director of medical and specialty sensor marketing at Amherst, said: 'The PCap04 offers sensor manufacturers a flexible alternative to other sensor front-ends for fixed operating features on the market today, and offers the unique advantage of enabling the sensor manufacturer to adjust The front of the sensor runs to meet the needs of its specific application. '
Available now in PCap04, available in die or QFN-24 plastic package Evaluation Board EVAL-PCAP04 is available online at Amhers Semiconductor.