Universal reference design offers accuracy and flexibility for industrial sensors

Industrial automation engineers can now achieve highly accurate measurements for their system designs with the MAXREFDES67# analog front end (AFE) universal input Micro PLC reference design from Maxim Integrated Products.

As high-resolution systems move to higher bit counts, they become more sensitive to noise, making such systems difficult to build and maintain accuracy. MAXREFDES67# is a 'unique' 24-bit AFE reference design that overcomes this challenge. Capable of accepting four different signals, the MAXREFDES67# universal analog input requires no jumpers and is 100% software configurable, says the company.

To meet Industry 4.0 requirements, Maxim partnered with Wurth Electronics Midcom to customize a power isolation transformer that is energy-efficient and compact enough to fit in Maxim’s credit-card-sized Micro PLC form factor.

Key Advantages

1. High accuracy: effective resolution up to 22.3 bits with temperature error as low as ±0.1% across a range of -40 °C to +150 °C
2. Ease of use: Beyond-the-Rails signal chain reduces board space, component count, and cost
3. Flexible: universal input accepts four different signals - voltage, current, resistance temperature detector (RTD), and thermocouple (TC)

“MAXREFDES67 is by far the highest performance analog reference design that Maxim has ever built,” said David Andeen, director of reference designs, Maxim Integrated. “It also features a complete Beyond the Rails signal chain, enabling the entire system to process inputs in excess of the bias voltages for each component.”