ADI has announced a data acquisition system (DAS) that enhances the monitoring capabilities of smart grid equipment to protect equipment from harmful system failures and improve power to homes and businesses.
As power demand increases and renewable energy sources increase, utility companies must expand the scope, granularity, and accuracy of monitoring points throughout the distribution network. Current data acquisition systems often require complex design work and expensive integrations, which may exceed the needs of the application.
The new DAS supports 0.2-level measurement accuracy and enables the development of faster, more sensitive and affordable fault detection equipment, helping protection relay operators minimize the high costs associated with repairing and replacing damaged components.
The AD7616 DAS reduces the need for multiple devices in high-channel-count applications by integrating dual simultaneous sampling of 16 channels, which simplifies design and reduces system cost. The AD7616 operates from a single 5V power supply and can accommodate ± 10V, ± 5V, and ± 2.5V true bipolar input signals, while sampling up to 1 MSPS per channel.
In addition, the device's input structure eliminates the need for additional external protection circuitry or external signal conditioning, thereby increasing costs. On-chip filtering and high input impedance (1Mohm) eliminate the need for driver op amps and external bipolar power supplies. The high-precision on-chip ADC provides 90dB SNR, which meets the 0.2 level measurement accuracy requirements and produces more accurate and reliable time-related data. By using the on-chip oversampling mode, a higher SNR performance of 92 dB can be achieved.
The AD7616 DAS is suitable for a variety of power distribution applications, such as relay protection and feeder terminal units for low voltage power distribution. The company said the new device is also ideal for multiphase motor control and industrial instrumentation applications.