Microchip and Electronica Azi are offering you the chance to win a Microchip MCP6N16 Evaluation Board. The MCP6N16 evaluation board is designed to provide an easy and flexible platform when evaluating the performance of the MCP6N16, a Zero-Drift instrumentation amplifier designed for low-voltage operation featuring rail-to-rail input and output performance.

The evaluation board is populated with the MCP6N16-100, which is optimized for gains of 100V/V or higher. If one of the other gain option models is desired (e.g. MCP6N16-001 for gain of ≥1V/V, or the MCP6N16-010 for gain of ≥10V/V), exchanging the DUT and adjusting the gain setting resistors can easily be accomplished with standard soldering tools.

The fully assembled evaluation board includes differential input filtering, two jumper selectable gain settings and output filtering, in addition to an external voltage reference circuit to allow for an adjustable output common-mode level shifting.

The MCP6N16 instrumentation amp is ideal for applications that require a combination of high performance and precision, low power consumption, and low-voltage operation. Examples include sensor interfaces, signal conditioning, and stationary and portable instrumentation, for the medical, consumer and industrial markets.

The MCP6N16’s low-power CMOS process technology enables low power consumption whilst still providing 500 kHz bandwidth, and it features a hardware-enable pin for even more power savings. This low-power operation and shutdown capability requires less current for the given speed and performance, which extends battery life and leads to less self-heating. In addition, the amplifier’s low, 1.8V operation allows two dry-cell, 1.5V batteries to be drained well beyond typical use, and its rail-to-rail input and output operation enables full-range use, even in low-supply conditions. This provides better performance across the entire operating-voltage range.