Intersil Introduces Industry's Best ADC Driver for High Speed Applications

The amplifier portion of the data acquisition channel usually limits overall system performance. With the recent breakthroughs in reduced power consumption for Intersil's new family of 12- to 16-bit, 200MSPS to 500MSPS ADCs, our new low power ISL55210 driver amplifier provides an equally compelling solution to the most demanding data acquisition requirements, said Susan Hardman, Senior Vice President of Intersil's Analog and Mixed-Signal Products Group. Now, instead of a compromised, last minute solution, Intersil offers a driver amplifier plus ADC combination with the industry's best SFDR and SNR performance at the lowest total power.

Features and Specifications
The ISL55210 noise is negligible with respect to the ADC, so adding gain and filtering will have virtually no impact on a system's SNR. In addition, power requirements are a minimal 115mW - less than half the power used by alternative solutions. The device features very high slew rates, low noise and ultra-low distortion, and provides a 4GHz gain bandwidth with input noise of only 0.85nV/?Hz. The ISL55210 also provides consistent performance over a wide temperature and gain range.

Distortion for the ISL55210 is a very low -94dBc at 140MHz (IM3). In addition, the amplifier's balanced architecture suppresses even-order harmonic distortion, which is usually caused by asymmetrical or unbalanced signal paths. The ISL55210 supports gains greater than two with minimal bandwidth or SFDR degradation. This significant performance margin is well suited to support Intersil's low power 500MSPS ISLA112P50 12-bit and the ISLA214P50 14-bit ADCs. The ISL55210 offers an independent output Vcm control that can be tied to the ADC Vcm reference or left to default to its internal 1.2V setting. For the lowest system power, an optional power shutdown is included to reduce off state power to <1mW. When disabled, the input stage includes a protection feature that prevents large signals present at the input from reaching the sensitive ADC inputs.

For time-domain applications, the ISL55210 offers 3Vpp maximum linear output with a differential slew rate of 5600V/micro-second, fast settling step response and a 700MHz full-power bandwidth.

External feedback and gain setting resistors provide the designer maximum flexibility and accuracy. Also releasing soon is a companion device, the ISL55211, with internally set feedback and gain elements providing a choice of three possible differential I/O gain settings.