Integrating Analogue Devices Efficiently Into Digital Designs

摘要

The increasing complexity of designs over the last decade has produced many new types of digital devices - such as FPGAs, DSPs, FRAMs, and Flash microcontrollers. At the same time, requirements for more memory, intelligence and functionality, and the replacement of older discrete and mechanical components, have significantly increased the digital content of these systems. These developments have also created a demand for a growing range of high-performance analogue components, which must be incorporated into systems in an efficient manner. There are many drivers behind this trend, the most obvious being the fact that real-world signals - such as pressure, temperature, motion, and others - need to be captured by an analogue component before they can be translated to a digital signal. A typical signal chain requires filtering, buffering, gain control and analogue-to-digital conversion (ADC) functions, which are all performed by analogue and mixed-signal devices (see Figure 1).