
FS450, FS451
PRELIMINARY PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
JUNE, 2000, VERSION 1.2
53
COPYRIGHT
ó
1999,2000 FOCUS ENHANCEMENTS, INC.
PRELIMINARY INFORMATION
7.5 Interfacing to the FS450 in a Mixed Voltage Environment
As many devices designed today, the FS450 is powered by +3.3 Volts. However, 5 Volt devices are still
very common today and will continue to be used for some time in the future. To meet this interface
requirement the FS450 has 5 Volt tolerant inputs.
7.5.1 Interfacing to the SIO bus.
The SIO bus was developed previous to 3.3V logic processes. The SIO bus input voltage specification is 1.5
Volts for V
IL
and 3.0 Volts for V
IH
. The FS450 is built on a 3.3 Volt process and has 5 Volt tolerant inputs
with a V
IL
of 0.8 Volts and a V
IH
of 2.0 Volts.
For most applications this voltage difference is not an issue as the output drive low specification (V
OL
) of the
SIO bus and the FS450 are both 0.4 Volts. However, in heavily loaded SIO busses the output V
OL
is not
always preserved.
An easy way to regain the 0.7 Volt difference in the V
IL
specification of the FS450 and the SIO bus is to bias
the FS450’s input negative by a diode drop (D1). The diode can be biased by a long-tail resistor pair or a
current source pair. Shown below is the long-tail pair:
+12V
-12V
R1
22K
R2
27K
D1
To
I2C
To
FS450
Figure 11. SIO Translation Using Long-tail Resistors
D1 = 1N4148
The long-tail pair is a simple circuit but has the disadvantage of requiring higher voltage power supplies.
Also, these supplies may have to powered up in a specific sequence so the surround circuits are not over-
voltage.
The translation circuit below requires only one 5 Volt power supply and has no special sequence
requirements. In addition, the circuit offers a high impedance load (Q1 become reverse biased) to the SIO
bus when its power supply is removed. Unfortunately, it requires more parts. In applications where
transistors are more readily available, R2 and R3 can be replaced with diode connected transistors.