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S P E C I A L A D V E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N

R A Q ’ s

Rarely Asked Questions

Strange but true stories from the call logs of Analog Devices

Caveat Emptor!
Q. How do I make sense out of a data sheet?
Contributing Writer
A. With some dif- es among manufac- James Bryant has
ficulty. The ostensi- turers to find candi- been a European
ble purpose of a date devices. Third,
data sheet is to despite your misgiv- Applications Manager
provide the user ings, read the d***ed with Analog Devices
and potential user data sheets. (I really since 1982. He holds a
with the fullest pos- did once have some-
degree in Physics and
sible information one call to ask how
about the functions many pins there are Philosophy from the
and technical char- on an 8 lead mini-DIP.) University of Leeds. He
acteristics of the When reading data is also C.Eng.,
device concerned. sheets, at the very
Eur.Eng., MIEE, and an
But the realities least watch out for:
practically ensure • “Vdd
Vss” or, FBIS. In addition to
that there are too better “|Vss|  Vdd” his passion for engi-
many cooks con- These are subtle neering, James is a
cocting these doc- ways of saying that if
uments, producing spoiled broth indeed. you supply the negative supply before the radio ham and holds
The IC designer who writes the first draft positive, the device will destroy itself. the call sign G4CLF.
wants to emphasize the genius of his or her • Specifications which appear similar on
creation. The marketing manager wants to two data sheets but are not—such as small-
stress competitive advantages while soft- signal bandwidth versus full-power band-
peddling any drawbacks. The test engineer width, or settling time to 1 lsb (12-bits) ver-
wants to minimize the time and cost of pro- sus settling time to 1 percent. Have a question
duction testing, and tries to remove all maxi- • “Typical” versus maximum and minimum
ma and minima from the table of characteris- specifications. The meaning of maximum involving a
tics, instead replacing them with “typical” and minimum is clear and well-understood.
values. Corporation lawyers want to make The meaning of typical is open to many
certain that potential (mis)users of the device interpretations. perplexing or
have no grounds for suing the Corporation. The “compromises” involved in meeting a
Corporate communications wants the docu- data sheet’s conflicting requirements mean
unusual analog
ment shrunk from 60 pages to four. And that much more can be learned from a data
applications engineers (ahem!) want the data sheet than simply the overt facts and specifi-
sheet so clear and simple that even a soft- cations. The website below analyzes these problem? Submit
ware engineer can understand it and they things in considerable detail. It would be a
can sleep away their afternoons without the wonderful thing if the industry could agree on
applications enquiry phone ringing. The final a standardized format for data sheets and
your question to:
product is a “compromise”, and not always they all told the truth, the whole truth, and raq@reedbusiness.com
as helpful as it could be. And because data nothing but the truth. But I’m not holding my
sheets are always produced in a hurry when breath until it happens. Caveat emptor!
the product is ready for release they always
have some mistakes. To learn more about how SPONSORED BY
What’s an engineer to do? First, know which
specifications are most important to your to read data sheets,
application. If you don’t know, consult design Go to:
guides or screw up your courage and ask http://rbi.ims.ca/5696-103
someone. Second, conduct parametric search-

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