SPI INTERFACE

WIPER

REGISTER

HA

LA

WA

VDD

GND

SCLK

DIN

CS

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8

TPL0501-100

SLIS136C – SEPTEMBER 2011 – REVISED SEPTEMBER 2019

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7 Detailed Description

7.1 Overview

The TPL0501 has a single linear-taper digital potentiometer with 256 wiper positions and an end-to-end

resistance of 100 kΩ. The potentiometer can be used as a three-terminal potentiometer or as a two-terminal

rheostat. The potentiometer can be used in either voltage divider mode or rheostat mode.

The high (H) and low (L) terminals of the TPL0501 are equivalent to the fixed terminals of a mechanical

potentiometer. The H and L terminals do not have any polarity restrictions (H can be at a higher voltage than L,

or L can be at a higher voltage than H). The position of the wiper (W) terminal is controlled by the value in the

8-bit Wiper Resistance (WR) register. When the WR register contains all zeroes (zero-scale), the wiper terminal

is closest to its L terminal. As the value of the WR register increases from all zeroes to all ones (full-scale), the

wiper moves from the position closest to the L terminal, to the position closest to the H terminal. At the same

time, the resistance between W and L increases, whereas the resistance between W and H decreases.

7.2 Functional Block Diagram

7.3 Feature Description

7.3.1 Single-Channel, 256-Position Resolution

The TPL0501 features a single independent DPOT. The DPOT is capable of being used and controlled

independently.