If all three channels must be monitored at power-up, but only one channel must be monitored after the system has stabilized, disable the other two channels after power-up. This configuration allows the INA3221-Q1 to only monitor the power-supply rail of interest. Disable unused channels to help improve system response time by more quickly returning to sampling the channel of interest. The INA3221-Q1 linearly monitors the enabled channels. That is, if all three channels are enabled for both shunt- and bus-voltage measurements, an additional five conversions complete after a signal is measured before the device returns to that particular signal to begin another conversion. To reduce this requirement down to two conversions before the device begins a new conversion on a particular channel again, change the operating mode to monitor only the shunt voltage.

A timing aspect is also involved in reducing the measured signals. The amount of time to complete an all-channel, shunt- and bus-voltage sequence is equal to the sum of the shunt-voltage conversion time and the bus-voltage conversion time (programmed by the CT bits in the Configuration register) multiplied by the three channels. The conversion times for the shunt- and bus-voltage measurements are programmed independently; however, the selected shunt- and bus-voltage conversion times apply to all channels.

Enable a single channel with only one signal measured to allow for that particular signal to be monitored solely. This setting enables the fastest response over time to changes in that specific input signal because there is no delay from the end of one conversion before the next conversion begins on that channel. Conversion time is not affected by enabling or disabling other channels. Selecting both the shunt- and bus-voltage settings, as well as enabling additional channels, extends the time from the end of one conversion on a signal before the beginning of the next conversion of that signal.