However, for many users the problem is that they do not want to have a large quiescent current drawn

when the ADC is not in use. One solution to this is to add an external switch which turns on the current in
the resistive ladder as shown in Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.-1.
Another option is to use a large decoupling capacitor to supply the needed charge as discussed in
Chapter 1.1.1.


Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.-1. CC2530 powered by LDO with example ADC
connection

An alternative to a large decoupling capacitor is to use lower resistance values and let the current drawn
come directly from the battery through the resistive ladder. However, if power consumption is an issue,
one could instead use a switch in series with this ladder which is driven by an IO port on the CC2530.

In all cases above where the battery voltage is supplied externally, it is recommended to use a capacitor
to filter external noise and if needed, use a large enough capacitor to supply current during the ADC
conversion.

A general sketch showing the resistive ladder and the decoupling capacitor is shown in Figure Error! No
text of specified style in document.-1.

1.1.1 External component sizing

When selecting the external components, it is important have in mind the current drawn from the ADC
input. The input impedance of the ADC has been simulated to 197k!.


Decoupling capacitor
Assuming the input from the resistive ladder is a perfect open circuit and is not supplying any current, the
average voltage across the capacitor C151 should not drop more than 0.5V
LSB
during the maximum
number of conversions, which is when a decimation rate 512 is used (12ENOB).
C 151
1

NC
2

NC
3

NC
4

NC
5

P 1 _ 5
C
C
2530
DIE ATTACH
PAD
:
1
0
DVDD 2
9

P 1 _ 1
8 P 1 _ 2
7 P 1 _ 3
6 P 1 _ 4
RBIAS 3
0
AVD
D
4
29
AVD
D
1
28
AVD
D
2
27
RF _ N 2
6
AVD
D
5
21
XOSC _ Q 1
22
XOSC _ Q 2
23
AVD
D
3
24
RF _ P

2
5
1
1

P
1
_
0
1
2

P
0
_
7
1
3

P
0
_
6
1
4

P
0
_
5
1
5

P
0
_
4
2
0

R
E
S
E
T
_
N
1
9

P
0
_
0
1
8

P
0
_
1
1
7

P
0
_
2
1
6

P
0
_
3
D
C
O
U
P
L

4
0
D
V
D
D
1

3
9
P
1
_
6

3
8
P
1
_
7

3
7
P
2
_
0

3
6
A
V
D
D
6

3
1
P
2
_
4
/
X
O
S
C
3
2
K
_
Q
1

3
2
P
2
_
3
/
X
O
S
C
3
2
K
_
Q
2

3
3
P
2
_
2

3
4
P
2
_
1

3
5 LD
O
VBATT
R 152
R 153

The voltage that is input to the ADC can be calculated by looking at the charge transfer during each of the
samples:

Assuming the external capacitor C
ext
is fully charged to the voltage V
i,0
, the initial charge on this capacitor
can be written as
i ext
V C Q ! = . The simulated input impedance of 197k! is at a sampling frequency of 4
Mhz equivalent to an internal switched capacitance C
int
with the value:
pF
f R
C
s in
27 . 1
) (
1
int
=
!
=
Assuming that the internal capacitor C
int
is fully discharged between each sequential sample, the voltage
V
i,1
on the ADC input after one single sample (of N samples) is found as:
0 ,
int
1 ,
1 , int
0 ,
) (
i
ext
ext
i
i ext
i ext
V
C C
C
V
V C C Q
V C Q
!
+
=
! + =
! =


Continuing this series we see that the ADC input voltage after n samples is found as:

0 ,
int
, i
n
ext
ext
n i
V
C C
C
V !
"
"
#
$
%
%
&
'
+
=


The average input voltage V
in,avg
calculated by the decimation filter after N samples will then be:

!
!
=
=
"
"
#
$
%
%
&
'
+
( =
(
"
"
#
$
%
%
&
'
+
( =
N
i
i
ext
ext
i
avg i
N
i
i
i
ext
ext
avg i
C C
C
N
V
V
V
C C
C
N
V
1 int
0 ,
,
1
0 ,
int
,
1

This geometric series has a result given as:
int
0 ,
,
,
1
1
C C
C
K
K
K
K
N
V
V
ext
ext
N
i
avg i
+
=
!
"
#
$
%
&
'
'
( ( =


Table Error! No text of specified style in document.-1 summarizes a simulation of the capacitor value
needed to avoid an average voltage error >0.5V
LSB
when using a decimation rate of N=512 for given
accuracies.

The results comes from simulation in MATLAB with V
ref
=1.15V and the initial voltage V
i
on the ADC input
as 1.1V. The simulation assumes that no current is delivered from the resistive ladder.
Accuracy(Bits) 12 11 10 9 8 7
V
average
(N=512) 1.09986 1.09972 1.09944 1.09888 1.09775 1.09547
Capacitance(F) 2.56u 1.28u 640n 320n 160n 80n
Table Error! No text of specified style in document.-1. Accuracy vs. decoupling capacitor value
As seen above, quite large decoupling capacitors are needed to maintain the accuracy that the ADC is
capable of delivering.
Resistive ladder
The resistive ladder is mainly used to divide down the battery voltage below the internal reference. It is
desirable to maximize the resistance values in order to minimize the power consumption, but it is
important to keep in mind that the decoupling capacitor must be fully recharged between each conversion
to yield correct ADC results.

The components C151, R152 and R153 in Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.-1 will
act as a RC filter when C151 is recharged after an ADC conversion is complete. The differential equation
for the ADC input voltage V
i
is found with Kirchoffs Current Law as (ignoring parasitic effects):


0
151
153 152
= ! + +
"
dt
dV
C
R
V
R
VDD V
i i i


Naming the initial value V
i
(t=0) as V
i0
, the solution of the equation is found as:

[ ]
153 152 151 153 152
153 152
152
0
153 152
152
) (
R R C R R t
i i
e VDD
R R
R
V VDD
R R
R
t V
+ !
"
#
#
$
%
&
&
'
(
"
+
! + "
+
=


As an example, consider the case when C
151
=160nF, R
152
=2M!, R
153
=1M! and VDD=3.3V, which will
give V
i
=1.1V. The quiescent current of the ladder will then be 1.1"A. Using the assumptions and values
from Table Error! No text of specified style in document.-1, the initial value on the ADC input after a
conversion is done will be V
i0
=1.09775V. If you want to wait until the voltage V
i
is within the 12 bit
accuracy value again, this will take 296ms!

For many applications, this time limit is not a concern. However if it is, one should consider implementing
a solution where resistive voltage division is not needed.
Another alternative is utilizing a switch to eliminate current being drawn outside the conversion periods
together with a low resistance ladder which will supply the ADC inputs and charge the decoupling
capacitor faster.