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Application Note
AN_289 FT51A Programming Guide
Version 1.0
Document Reference No.: FT_000962 Clearance No.: FTDI# 483
108
Copyright © 2015 Future Technology Devices International Limited
Figure 2.8 Square wave with 20 % duty cycle
With the same 5V peak amplitude as the 50% duty cycle waveform, the 20% duty cycle waveform
has the following RMS voltage:
VRMS = 5V * SQRT (.20)
VRMS = 2.24V
By changing the duty cycle, the effective RMS is modified without changing the signal amplitude.
Why is this important?
By changing the amplitude and duty cycle of the signal, it is essentially generating an analogue
signal from a digital source. PWM is a method that can be used to interface to analogue hardware
using a digital source such as a microcontroller.
Real world applications of PWM include lamp brightness, electric motor control and servo control.
The FT51A has 8 independent PWM channels. The following describes all registers used to control
these PWM channels.
2.12.1
PWM_CONTROL
Bit
Position
Bit Field Name
Type
Reset
Description
7..2
Reserved
RFU
0
Reserved
1
pwm_dev_en
R/W
0
Enable PWM
0
pwm_soft_reset
W1T
0
Reset PWM
Table 2.136 PWM Control Register
The PWM Control register provides top-level enable and reset functions for the PWM module.
The PWM module is enabled by setting the
pwm_dev_en
bit to 1. Clearing this bit will disable the
module.
To reset the module, a 1 is written to the
pwm_soft_reset
bit. This is cleared when the reset is
performed and will therefore always read as ‘0’.