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Mechanical potentiometers have been used by designers for decades in applications ranging from circuit trimming to volume control. However, they have their limitations: their wipers can wear out, they are susceptible to moisture ingress, and they can accidentally be moved off their set position. Further, as the world turns digital, designers need an alternative to meet requirements for more precise control and high reliability, along with flexibility to adjust values remotely via firmware.

Digital potentiometer ICs—often called digipots—solve these issues by bridging the digital domain and the analog resistor world. As an all-electronic, microcontroller-compatible component, digipots allow a processor and software to control, set, and vary their resistance value or voltage divider ratio.

They offer features and functions which mechanical devices cannot provide and are more rugged and reliable as they have no moving wiper. They cannot be deliberately tweaked or inadvertently adjusted, avoiding inexplicable performance changes. Applications include LED thermal stabilization, LED dimming, closed-loop gain control, audio volume adjustment, calibration, and Wheatstone bridge trims for sensors, controlling current sources, and tuning programmable analog filters, to cite just a few.

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Post time: May-09-2022