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Analog and Digital Ground — Parallax Forums

Analog and Digital Ground

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2003-06-12 20:07 in General Discussion
Hi

In ADCs we keep the DIGITAL and ANALOG grounds
seperate (to minimize the switching Noise for the
analog part)eg ADC0838 . But i am confused as to how
the grounds are physically seperate. I mean the
reference has to common .right?
If we seperate them physically the ckt stops working
hence i have to join the analog and digital grnds.
WHich defeats the puropse of providing two different
grnds in the first place.
Pls shed some light as to how to seperate the grnds?

thanks

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Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2003-06-12 01:29
    The grounds aren't completely seperate. They both go back to the ground leg
    of your power supply. They are seperate in that no digital grounds are
    attached to the analog leg and visa versa.

    The important part if how many noisy things you have between the ADC and the
    ground. The further from the ground you get, the noisier the ground leg
    itself will be. If you hook up the ADC at the very end of a digital ground,
    its results will be quite noisy. The closer you get to the power supply and
    the fewer digital sources between it and the ground, the less noise you'll
    see. In many cases just having the ADC ground first on a ground leg is
    enough to mitigate noise. The simplest/safest thing is to run another leg
    for analog only to ensure no digital grounds get between your analog device
    and the ground.

    To truly understand the topic you'll have to brush up on electricity. AC
    characteristics are what you're looking for, the affect of expanding and
    collapsing electromagnetic fields etc.

    If noise is a problem then the first step is an analog ground. The second
    thing is to remember that you have electricity flowing through long wires.
    Whenever a chip becomes active, it suddenly draws more power. As the current
    fluctuates, so to does the electromagnetic field around the wire and you
    effectively have a broadcasting antanna. Wires around this antanna are
    affected by this broadcast and current is induced in them, causing more
    noise in the circuit.

    You can try to keep your traces far apart and minimize propagation but thats
    not entirely practical in many situations. What you can do though is shorten
    the amount of trace that is actually experiencing large current fluctations.
    Thats where decoupling capacitors come into play. If you stick a small cap
    (say .1uF) right at the power pin of each chip, the capacitor can supply the
    higher current when required instead of the power supply. The trace between
    the power supply and the cap has a fairly constant current so field
    fluctuations are quite small and broadcasts very weak. Between the cap and
    the chip the current fluctuations are far larger but the trace length is
    quite short - again, weak broadcasts. The closer to the power pin of the
    chip you can get, the better it works.

    When I added decoupling caps to my pH sensor circuit the ADC readings went
    from a fluctuation of roughly +/- 0.05 pH to +/- 0.002. Major improvement!

    Meridian 59 is back! Sacred Haven - server 200
    www.skotos.net
    Original Message
    From: "harshit suri" <suri_list@y...>
    To: "stamp" <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
    Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 2:08 PM
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Analog and Digital Ground


    > Hi
    >
    > In ADCs we keep the DIGITAL and ANALOG grounds
    > seperate (to minimize the switching Noise for the
    > analog part)eg ADC0838 . But i am confused as to how
    > the grounds are physically seperate. I mean the
    > reference has to common .right?
    > If we seperate them physically the ckt stops working
    > hence i have to join the analog and digital grnds.
    > WHich defeats the puropse of providing two different
    > grnds in the first place.
    > Pls shed some light as to how to seperate the grnds?
    >
    > thanks
    >
    > __________________________________
    > Do you Yahoo!?
    > Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
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    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
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    >
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    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2003-06-12 02:04
    > Thats where decoupling capacitors come into play. If you stick a small cap
    > (say .1uF) right at the power pin of each chip, the capacitor can supply
    the

    Oops, make that 1uF.
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2003-06-12 13:33
    Good advice, all....

    The reason for all this bypass capacitor mumbo-jumbo is that big filter caps
    have a lot of series inductance (they're wrapped like a jelly roll inside),
    which basically unhooks them from the circuit at high frequencies. That's
    why little disc capacitors (which have great high-frequency response) are
    often piggy-backed on big 10,000 uF caps, and added near each IC or PCB
    supply line. Long power supply leads and traces add serial resistance, as
    well as inductance on occasion, plus add the possibility of
    capacitive/inductive coupling, etc. And yes, all electron flow returns via
    the grounds, so once digital noise gets on an analog ground, it's very
    difficult to get rid of it. That's why keeping your digital and analog
    supplies separate is the only way to fly.

    Mike Sokol
    mikes@m...
    www.ModernRecording.com


    "Yes, we're mum and dad - and good and bad -
    and everyone's happy to be here.
    Genesis-

    Original Message
    From: "Jim Forkin" <jjf@p...>
    To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
    Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 9:04 AM
    Subject: RE: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Analog and Digital Ground


    > What you need to do is keep current flow in the ground circuits for the
    > analog and digital from affecting each other. (mostly digital affecting
    > analog). In other words, run a return for analog in directly to an op amp
    > and then to a common ground point and digital input ground directly to a
    > buffer chip ground and then to a common ground point. Don't daisy chain
    > grounds together. Keep the signals balanced even though both may be at the
    > same potential. This can be difficult to do in common practice. Keep in
    > mind that all noise interferance does not propagate on ground returns.
    > Noise can be radiated directly, coupled inductively or capacitively or any
    > combination of these ways. As a practical matter, just use shielded
    > twinlead for low level analog inputs (ground the shield only at the higher
    > level end), keep signal and power wiring away from each other, and isolate
    > analog and digital power using filtering or regulation and by all means,
    > place a capacitor at each device to bypass + to ground as close to the
    > device as possible. Analog circuit design is a different world than
    digital
    > and things are not always predictable without the experience to recognize
    > potential problems.
    >
    > I hope I didn't confuse you more!
    >
    > Good luck,
    >
    > Jim
    > http://www.geocities.com/jimforkin2003/
    >
    >
    >
    Original Message
    > From: harshit suri [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=BoDxDBL8823sMoHGMK83WOhf8FydP8B2ebekCns1JxPhNRJ-6WLDAUboKEglfHpKYRwXCsKo5b1OVg]suri_list@y...[/url
    > Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 5:09 PM
    > To: stamp
    > Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Analog and Digital Ground
    >
    >
    > Hi
    >
    > In ADCs we keep the DIGITAL and ANALOG grounds
    > seperate (to minimize the switching Noise for the
    > analog part)eg ADC0838 . But i am confused as to how
    > the grounds are physically seperate. I mean the
    > reference has to common .right?
    > If we seperate them physically the ckt stops working
    > hence i have to join the analog and digital grnds.
    > WHich defeats the puropse of providing two different
    > grnds in the first place.
    > Pls shed some light as to how to seperate the grnds?
    >
    > thanks
    >
    > __________________________________
    > Do you Yahoo!?
    > Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
    > http://calendar.yahoo.com
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    > Body of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
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    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2003-06-12 14:04
    What you need to do is keep current flow in the ground circuits for the
    analog and digital from affecting each other. (mostly digital affecting
    analog). In other words, run a return for analog in directly to an op amp
    and then to a common ground point and digital input ground directly to a
    buffer chip ground and then to a common ground point. Don't daisy chain
    grounds together. Keep the signals balanced even though both may be at the
    same potential. This can be difficult to do in common practice. Keep in
    mind that all noise interferance does not propagate on ground returns.
    Noise can be radiated directly, coupled inductively or capacitively or any
    combination of these ways. As a practical matter, just use shielded
    twinlead for low level analog inputs (ground the shield only at the higher
    level end), keep signal and power wiring away from each other, and isolate
    analog and digital power using filtering or regulation and by all means,
    place a capacitor at each device to bypass + to ground as close to the
    device as possible. Analog circuit design is a different world than digital
    and things are not always predictable without the experience to recognize
    potential problems.

    I hope I didn't confuse you more!

    Good luck,

    Jim
    http://www.geocities.com/jimforkin2003/


    Original Message
    From: harshit suri [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=8qnJ0-zA64js-COuYMqmvyRC-7AvtfjVVzYoIEWpUg3CmgMcfzLyW2dVSFl1pvPYZWgEanLoaXCwUXJT]suri_list@y...[/url
    Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 5:09 PM
    To: stamp
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Analog and Digital Ground


    Hi

    In ADCs we keep the DIGITAL and ANALOG grounds
    seperate (to minimize the switching Noise for the
    analog part)eg ADC0838 . But i am confused as to how
    the grounds are physically seperate. I mean the
    reference has to common .right?
    If we seperate them physically the ckt stops working
    hence i have to join the analog and digital grnds.
    WHich defeats the puropse of providing two different
    grnds in the first place.
    Pls shed some light as to how to seperate the grnds?

    thanks

    __________________________________
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  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2003-06-12 20:04
    Analog and digital sections are separated but should only be joined in one
    place.
    The recommended layout of high performance mixed - signals ICs is outlined
    in the evaluation board that the manufacturers offer.
    I use AD7730 24 bit A/D and the ground planes should be connected at the
    AGND and DGND pins of the AD7730 like this:

    AGND || DGND
    area || area
    _____ ||____
    |_____ ____| AD7730
    * ||
    ||
    ||
    Regards
    Mohamed Refky


    >From: harshit suri <suri_list@y...>
    >Reply-To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    >To: stamp <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
    >Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Analog and Digital Ground
    >Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 14:08:32 -0700 (PDT)
    >
    >Hi
    >
    >In ADCs we keep the DIGITAL and ANALOG grounds
    >seperate (to minimize the switching Noise for the
    >analog part)eg ADC0838 . But i am confused as to how
    >the grounds are physically seperate. I mean the
    >reference has to common .right?
    >If we seperate them physically the ckt stops working
    >hence i have to join the analog and digital grnds.
    >WHich defeats the puropse of providing two different
    >grnds in the first place.
    >Pls shed some light as to how to seperate the grnds?
    >
    >thanks
    >
    >__________________________________
    >Do you Yahoo!?
    >Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
    >http://calendar.yahoo.com
    >
    >To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    >from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    >Body of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >

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  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2003-06-12 20:07
    Analog and digital sections are separated but should only be joined in one
    place.
    The recommended layout of high performance mixed - signals ICs is outlined
    in the evaluation board that the manufacturers offer.
    I use AD7730 24 bit A/D and the ground planes should be connected at the
    AGND and DGND pins of the AD7730 like this:

    DGND || AGND
    area || area
    _____ ||____
    this is the correct not the last
    |_____ ____| AD7730
    * ||
    ||
    ||
    Regards
    Mohamed Refky


    >From: harshit suri <suri_list@y...>
    >Reply-To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    >To: stamp <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
    >Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Analog and Digital Ground
    >Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 14:08:32 -0700 (PDT)
    >
    >Hi
    >
    >In ADCs we keep the DIGITAL and ANALOG grounds
    >seperate (to minimize the switching Noise for the
    >analog part)eg ADC0838 . But i am confused as to how
    >the grounds are physically seperate. I mean the
    >reference has to common .right?
    >If we seperate them physically the ckt stops working
    >hence i have to join the analog and digital grnds.
    >WHich defeats the puropse of providing two different
    >grnds in the first place.
    >Pls shed some light as to how to seperate the grnds?
    >
    >thanks
    >
    >__________________________________
    >Do you Yahoo!?
    >Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
    >http://calendar.yahoo.com
    >
    >To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    >from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    >Body of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >

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