Electronic – Output voltage error

adcbufferdriftoperational-amplifiervoltage

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This is an external protection circuit for an analog to digital converter. I have modelled the resistive sensor as a voltage divider.

I have used pull down resistor R14 to avoid floating input then I have used a voltage follower. After that I have used voltage divider (R15-R16) to scale the input voltage range from (0-10V) to (0-5V,) after the second stage buffer I am using a RC low pass filter and I am using a schottky diode as a positive voltage clipper for over voltage protection.

I am using R18 to model the high input impedance of analog to digital converter.

The issue that I am facing is that when the sensor gives a voltage of 4 volts, the divider makes it 2V but at final_adc_in I am getting a voltage of 2.1 V. I am getting a voltage drift for every sensor input voltage.

Any suggestion for reducing this voltage drift to minimum?

Best Answer

Remove D7, and I think the output situation will improve.

The 1N5817 has a reverse leakage current of up to 1 mA. That combined with resistor R17 lets the 5V rail pull the output away from its intended value.

D7 acts like a resistor and forms a voltage divider with R17. The result is somewhere between the 5V rail and the output voltage from U2.

The 1N5817 is more for high current applications.

You'll need to find a replacement for D7 with a far lower reverse leakage current.


The ADS1115 can only tolerate 5.3V on its analog input when operating on 5.3.

You will need a diode with a low foward voltage (less than 0.3V) to really protect the ADS1115. You will need a diode with a very small reverse leakage current to minimize the error in your protection circuit.

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