MAXREFDES61#: uPLC, 4-Ch Analog Input Card

Industry 4.0 marks the fourth industrial revolution, characterized by distributed, intelligent control systems. Breaking from a past with large, centralized programmable-logic controllers, Industry 4.0 allows for highly configurable, highly modular factories, which accept an ever increasing number of sensor inputs, while operating at a higher output than ever before. The ultra-small PLC, or Micro PLC, lies at the heart of the Industry 4.0 factory, providing high performance with ultra-low power consumption in an ultra-small package. MAXREFDES61# is Maxim’s Micro PLC, quad-channel, analog input card.

The MAXREFDES61# features a 16-bit high-accuracy four-channel analog input with isolated power and data. Two of the input channels accept -10V to +10V signals and the other two inputs accept 4mA to 20mA signals.

The MAXREFDES61# design integrates

• a dual low-noise low-distortion buffer (MAX9633)

• a 16-bit 4-channel multi-range input ADC (MAX1301)

• two high-voltage 4–20mA current protectors (MAX14626) for the current input channels

• an ultra-high-precision 4.096V voltage reference (MAX6126)

• 600VRMS data isolation (MAX14850)

• a STM32F4 microcontroller; a FTDI USB-UART bridge

• a high-efficiency DC-DC converter (MAX15062)

• and isolated/regulated +15V, +5V, and -3V power rails (MAX17498C/MAX8719/MAX1659/MAX1735).

The entire system typically operates at less than 500mW and fits into a space roughly the size of a credit card. While targeted for the industrial, Micro PLC application, MAXREFDES61# may be used in any application that requires high-accuracy analog-to-digital conversion.