Latest Hall-effect sensors minimize power consumption and improve accuracy

Aimed at contactless switching in portable consumer electronic products, domestic appliances and industrial equipment, a new family of micro-power 8-bit resolution Hall-effect sensors has been introduced by Diodes Incorporated. Operating over a supply range of 1.6V to 3.6V and a magnetic range of ±400G, the sensors allow the operating mode and sampling rate to minimize current consumption down to micro-power levels. The AH8500 and the higher accuracy AH8501, which both feature an enable pin, draw a current of just 9µA in sleep mode (default mode). The devices achieve a typical current consumption of only 12µA at 20Hz and 1.16mA at the maximum 7.14kHz sample rate. Also included in the product family are the AH8502 and AH8503, which feature a control pin and a default-mode sampling rate of 24Hz. These two devices consume 13µA and allow the control pin to increase the sampling rate up to 7.14kHz, with a current consumption of 1.16mA. The higher accuracy, gain trimmed AH8501 and AH8503 devices help minimize any sample-to-sample variation and the need for any sensor calibration. The AH8501 and AH8503 have a sensitivity accuracy of 3% at room temperature and a null offset below 1% of supply voltage. The sensors features internal ADCs and DACs and have a typical span linearity greater than 99.7% ensuring high linearity with the external magnetic field. A low input-referred noise characteristic of less than 0.36G helps minimize output fluctuation. The devices’ high sensitivity over its full operating range, typically 2.25mV/G at 1.6V to 4.12mV/G at 3.6V, enables designers to either boost field detection ranges or make use of weaker, lower cost magnets. With their chopper-stabilized architecture and advanced low temperature coefficient, these sensors help to minimize output offsets, drift and internal stress effects, ensuring greater stability and robustness over the full -40C to +85C operating temperature range. The devices also feature a high ESD of 6kV. Packaged in the small footprint, low profile U-DFN2020-6, this family of devices is suitable for a variety of proximity, position, and travel and level detection applications, says the company.