There is a name for innovation in weighing electronics - PSØ8 ! This single-chip solution offers a unique combination of great features, mainly the combination of a high-end signal converter with a microprocessor on a single chip. Besides the very high resolution it is the low current consumption of the total system that make PSØ8 so remarkable. The chip was specially designed for weighing applications that are based on metal strain gauges.

Just Married !

PSØ8 joins a 24-Bit microprocessor with a high resolution T/D-converter (TDC) according to the known PICOSTRAIN measuring principle. An LCD controller and an EEPROM make the device a full system on chip. 

The powerful TDC reaches up to 28 bit rms resolution. Thanks to its excellent linearity and drift numbers it has to be compared with absolute high-end A/D-converters. It is possible to get 80,000 divisions of stable display (internally 500,000 divisions). This high resolution together with the high stability over temperature and voltage make it possible to use the PSØ8 in legal for trade scales up to 10,000 divisions. 

The low-power 24-Bit microprocessor was developed especially for this device and offers a powerful ALU. In combination with the PICOSTRAIN measuring unit the device shows impressive performance. A complete system including the strain gauge may need less than 100 µA at 5,000 divisions and 5 Hz update rate thanks to the very short computing time. This is 10 to 20 times less than a classical A/D-converter solution needs. The device is specified down to 2.2V and therefore can be driven by a single lithium coin cell for a very long time.

Also wireless applications see great advantages due to the increased battery lifetime. Taking all measure of current saving the current in home and office applications can be reduced to approx. 15 µA. PSØ8 is therefore the first device worldwide that allows the making of solar driven weigh scales with strain gauges.

Visit the following pages and discover the manifold capabilities of PSØ8 . Take advantage of its extraordinary performance in your application – there is no reason to stay with the second-best !

(PSØ8 beta version is available in sample quantities. The final version will show slight modifications and will be available in production quantities in Q2/08)