Reference used on LPC4370 ADCHS 12-bit converter.

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Reference used on LPC4370 ADCHS 12-bit converter.

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jordsan
Contributor I

In looking at the 12-bit ADC on the LPC4370, it is not clear what is the reference voltage used for the conversion. What is the min/max of the voltage reference? What is the accuracy of the voltage reference? I have looked both on the user manual and the datasheet.

Thanks.

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soledad
NXP Employee
NXP Employee

Hi Jorge,

VDDA is the analog power and also voltage reference VREF for both ADCs.

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Have a great day,
Sol

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jordsan
Contributor I

Hi Soledad,

Thank you for the fast reply. Looking at the LPC4370 datasheet it would seem VDDA is only the reference for the 10-bit ADCs.

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The user manual seems to imply again that VDDA is only the reference for the 10-bit ADC.

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The 10-bit ADC0/1 chapter in the user manual hints at VDDA being the reference for both of the 10-bit ADCs (ADC0 and ADC1). Difficult to assume that it refers to all three ADCs (ADC0/1/HS).

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Doing a search for "reference" in the 12-bit ADC chapter a mention of an ADC band gap reference is found.pastedImage_4.png

Unfortunately there is no mention of the characteristics of this ADC band gap reference anywhere in the datasheet or the user manual. There is mention of the characteristics of a band gap in the datasheet.

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It would seem this reference is nowhere near good enough for a 12-bit ADC. It shows an absolute variation of ±21.5mV around its typical value of 0.6425V. This translates on ±88.064 LSBs of variation on this reference (0.0215/(1/4096)). If this is really the reference for the 12-bit ADC, is it possible to connect an external reference for the 12-bit ADC? Otherwise this 12-bit converter is really more akin to a 6-bit converter (12-(log(88.0624)/log(2)) = 12 - 6.46 = 5.54 bits

Or is the idea to measure this band gap using the 10-bit ADC in order to then correct the 12-bit conversion? Which after writing all this, if there is no other reference possible for the 12-bit ADC, I venture guess that was the intent of the designers.

Thanks.

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