Precision power monitor enables high-accuracy current and power measurements

Texas Instruments’ INA260 is a digital-output, current, power, and voltage monitor with an I2C and SMBus-compatible interface with an integrated precision shunt resistor. It enables high-accuracy current and power measurements and over-current detection at common-mode voltages that can vary from 0V to 36V, independent of the supply voltage. The device is a bidirectional, low or high-side, current-shunt monitor that measures current flowing through the internal current-sensing resistor. The integration of the precision current-sensing resistor provides calibration-equivalent measurement accuracy with ultra-low temperature drift performance and ensures that an optimized Kelvin layout for the sensing resistor is always obtained. The device features up to 16 programmable addresses on the I2C-compatible interface. The digital interface allows programmable alert thresholds, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) conversion times, and averaging. To facilitate ease of use, an internal multiplier enables direct readouts of current in amperes and power in watts. The device operates from a single 2.7V to 5.5V supply, drawing 310µA (typical) of supply current. The INA260 is specified over the operating temperature range between –40C and +125C and is available in the 16-pin TSSOP package.