SLVAEX3 October 2020 TPS8802 , TPS8804
By modifying amplifier speed and gain, LED current and pulse width, multiple ADC sample timing, and digital processing, the TPS880x achieves high SNR (>30 dB) with 1 nA photodiode current. Measurements of a photoelectric smoke sensor with a TPS8802EVM demonstrate various methods of improving SNR. A model of the system signal and noise provides intuition behind the results. The most effective methods are optimizing the amplifier time constants and taking multiple ADC samples. Longer time constants are effective when one top ADC sample is taken and shorter time constants are effective when multiple top ADC samples are taken. The optimal number of samples depends on the ADC sample rate, LED pulse length, and type of digital filtering. The averaging filter is sufficient for most applications and can be changed to a matched filter for higher SNR at the cost of more computational complexity. In power-critical applications, shortening the LED pulse width and increasing LED current can improve the SNR. The TPS880x smoke alarm AFE using these methods enables the next generation of smoke alarms to achieve fewer false alarms, reduced power consumption, and lower system cost.