The AD7781 is a complete, low power front-end solution for bridge sensor products, including weigh scales, strain gages, and pressure sensors. It contains a precision, low power, 20-bit sigma-delta (Σ-Δ) ADC, an on-chip, low noise programmable gain amplifier (PGA), and an on-chip oscillator.
Consuming only 330 μA, the AD7781 is particularly suitable for portable or battery-operated products where very low power is required. The AD7781 also has a power-down mode that allows the user to switch off the power to the bridge sensor and power down the AD7781 when not converting, thus increasing the battery life of the product.
For ease of use, all the features of the AD7781 are controlled by dedicated pins. Each time that a data read occurs, eight status bits are appended to the 20-bit conversion. These status bits contain a pattern sequence that can be used to confirm the validity of the serial transfer.