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Seismic

Seismic Solutions from Texas Instruments.

Block Diagram


-Data Conversion -MUX -PGA AC/DC Supply Amplification + Conversion Battery Charger Clock Core & I/O Power Low Power Wireless Processor RS232/RS485 Reference Sensor Power

Design Considerations

Oil exploration, earthquake detection, and acoustic monitoring of drilling operations are all applications that use seismic sensing capabilities. Hydrophones and geophones are commonly used to measure seismic disturbances of the earth. Such applications require signal conditioning of the input of a geophone, hydrophone, or other acoustic sensor, which demands effective amplification, filtering, and digitization of the target acoustic signal.

These signals are typically low to very-low frequency, varying from large to very small signals and at times are in the presence of large input common mode voltages. Because of these conditions and the need to often extract very low-level information from the measured signal, a very wide dynamic range data acquisition system is needed. Very low-noise front-end amplifiers are required to measure and amplify the outputs from the hydrophone or geophone and to match the input range of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC).

In addition to the low-noise requirements of the input amplifier, the ADC also requires very high dynamic range and very high linearity. Given that these systems are often used to measure the data from the hydrophone or geophone over very long periods, stability of the measurement system is critical. Many systems are battery operated and so low power is a high priority in these systems. An ideal seismic sensing system has the characteristics of good signal-to-noise ratio, low power consumption (to allow for remote operation), programmable signal filtering (to accommodate several applications), variable sampling, and cost-effectiveness.

Application Notes

  • Seismic Sensor Demonstration Using an ADS1255 and TMS320VC5510A DSP (sota003.htm, 8 KB)
    23 Jun 2006 Abstract
  • Principles of Data Acquisition and Conversion (sbaa051.htm, 8 KB)
    02 Oct 2000 Abstract
    

Selection and Solution Guides

Selection Guides

  • Amplifier and Data Converter Selection Guide (Rev. B) (slyb115b.pdf, 3.87 MB)
    01 Jun 2007 Download

Solution Guides

  • Analog and Logic for Low-Power Processors (Rev. C) (slyt052c.pdf, 3.09 MB)
    19 Jun 2007 Download

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