
AD7994/AD7993
–18–
REV. PrF
PRELIMINARY TECHNICAL DATA
LIMIT REGISTERS
The AD7994/AD7993 has four pairs of limit registers,
each to store high and low conversion limits for each ana-
log input channel. Each pair of limit registers has one
associated hysteresis register. All twelve registers are 16-
bits wide, only the 12 LSBs of the Registers are used for
the AD7994/AD7993, However on the AD7993 the 2
LSBs, D1 and D0, should contain 0s. On power-up, the
contents of the DATA
HIGH
Register for each channel will
be fullscale, while the contents of the DATA
LOW
registers
will be zeroscale by default.
The Limit Registers can be
used to monitor the conversion results on each on the
Analog input channels. The AD7994/AD7993 will signal
an Alert ( in either hardware or software or both depend-
ing on configuration) if the result moves outside the upper
or lower limit set by the limit registers.
DATA
HIGH
REGISTER CH1/CH2/CH3/CH4
The DATA
HIGH
Register for each channel is a 16-bit read/
write register, only the 12 LSBs of the Register are used.
The Registers store the upper limit that will activate the
ALERT output and/or the Alert_Flag bit in the Conver-
sion Result Register. Therefore, if the value in the Con-
version Result Register is greater than the value in the
DATA
HIGH
Register, then the Alert_Flag bit is set to 1
and the ALERT pin is activated (the latter is true if
ALERT is enabled in the Configuration Register). When
the conversion result returns to a value at least N LSBs
below the DATA
HIGH
Register value the ALERT output
pin and Alert_Flag bit will be reset. The value of N is
taken from the 12-bit Hysteresis register associated with
that channel. The ALERT pin can also be reset by writ-
ing to bits D2, D1 in the Configuration Register. For the
AD7993, D1 and D0 of the DATA
HIGH
register should
contain 0’s.
Table VIIIa. DATA
HIGH
Register (First Read/Write)
D15
D14
D13 D12
D11
D10
D9
D8
Alert_Flag 0
0
0
B11
B10
B9
B8
Table VIIIb. DATA
HIGH
Register (Second Read/Write)
D7
D6
D5
D4
D3
D2
D1
D0
B7
B6
B5
B4
B3
B2
B1
B0
DATA
LOW
REGISTER CH1/CH2/CH3/CH4
The DATA
LOW
Register for each channel is a 16-bit read/
write register, of which only the 12 LSBs are used. The
Register stores the lower limit that will activate the
ALERT output and/or the Alert_Flag bit in the conver-
sion result register. Therefore, if the value in the Conver-
sion Result Register is less than the value in the
DATA
LOW
Register, then the Alert_Flag bit is set to 1 and
the ALERT pin is activated (the latter is true if ALERT is
enabled in the Configuration Register). When the Conver-
sion result returns to a value at least N LSBs above the
DATA
LOW
Register value the ALERT ouput pin and
Alert_Flag bit will be reset. The value of N is taken from
the 12-bit Hysteresis register associated with that channel.
The ALERT pin can also be reset by writing to bit D2,D1
in the Configuration Register. For the AD7993 D1 and
D0 of the DATA
LOW
register should contain 0’s.
Table IXa. DATA
LOW
Register (First Read/Write)
D15
D14
D13 D12
D11
D10
D9
D8
Alert_Flag 0
0
0
B11
B10
B9
B8
Table IXb. DATA
LOW
Register (Second Read/Write)
D7
D6
D5
D4
D3
D2
D1
D0
B7
B6
B5
B4
B3
B2
B1
B0
HYSTERESIS REGISTER (CH1/CH2/CH3/CH4)
Each Hysteresis Register is a 16-bit read/write register,
only the 12 LSBs of the register are used. The Registers
store the hysteresis value, N when using the limit registers.
Each pair of Limit registers has a dedicated hysteresis
register. The hysteresis value determines the reset point
for the ALERT pin/Alert_Flag if a violation of the limits
has occurred. If a hysteresis value of say 8 LSBs is re-
quired on the upper and lower limits of channel 1 then the
12 bit word, 0000 0000 0000 1000, should be written to
the Hysteresis Register CH1, the address of which is
shown in Table III. On power up, the Hysteresis Registers
will contain a value of 8 LSBs for the AD7994 and 2
LSBs for the AD7993. If a different hysteresis value is
required then that value must be written to the Hysteresis
Register for the channel in question. For the AD7993 D1
and D0 of the Hysteresis Register should contain 0’s.
Table Xa. Hysteresis Register (First Read/Write)
D15
D14
D13 D12
D11
D10
D9
D8
Alert_Flag 0
0
0
B11
B10
B9
B8
Table Xb. Hysteresis Register (Second Read/Write)
D7
D6
D5
D4
D3
D2
D1
D0
B7
B6
B5
B4
B3
B2
B1
B0
Using the Limit Registers to Store Min/Max Conversion
Results
If fullscale, i.e. all 1s, is written to the Hysteresis register
for a particular channel then the DATA
HIGH
and
DATA
LOW
Registers for that channel will no longer act as
Limit registers as previously described, but instead they
will act as storage registers for the maximum and mini-
mum conversion results returned from conversions on a
channel over any given period of time. This function is
useful in applications where the widest span of actual con-
version results is required rather than using the ALERT to
signal an intervention is necessary, e.g. monitoring tem-
perature extremes during refrigerated goods transporta-
tion. When using the limit registers to store the min and