8.0 PGA309 Calculator (Software for Gain/Offset Calculation and Simulation)
The PGA309 Calculator is a software program that helps to calculate initial gain and offset settings based on
your sensor information. The tool also checks to see if the design violates any of the PGA309 specifications.
To start the PGA309 Calculator, you select the “PGA309 Calculator” under the “Start” menu, “All Programs”,
“PGA309 Designer’s Kit” as shown in Figure 28.
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Figure 28: Starting the PGA309 Calculator
The PGA309 Calculator software will appear as shown in Figure 29. The program requires that you enter the
following information about the PGA309: the reference (Vref), the sensor excitation (Vexc), the desired output
swing, and the power supply voltage (Vsa). The program also requires that you enter the following information
about the sensor: the bridge resistance, the offset, and the span of the sensor. Note that if you plan on using
the Rt method for temperature measurement, you should also enter Rt. Also, you can choose to enter the full
scale output, and offset of the sensor rather then the span and offset.
When all the sensor and PGA309 information is entered, press the “Compute Constants” button to calculate
the gain, and offset settings for the PGA309. Since there are multiple gain stages in the PGA309, there are
many different configurations that can be used to achieve any given gain value. For example, a gain of 500
can be achieved with Front End PGA Gain = 64, Output Amplifier Gain = 2, and Gain DAC = 0.781. A gain of
500 can also be achieved with Front End PGA Gain = 42.67, Output Amplifier Gain = 2.4, and Gain DAC =
0.976. The algorithm that the calculator uses chooses a gain combination that forces the Gain DAC as close
to mid scale as possible (Gain DAC=0.667 is ideal). The algorithm also chooses the larges possible Front End
PGA Gain to minimize noise. A similar algorithm is used for offset in that the Coarse Offset is selected to set
the Offset DAC to mid scale. Setting the Offset and Gain DAC to mid scale allows for the maximum PGA309
adjustment range to compensate for sensor drift.