Sunday, September 21, 2025

Analog Devices ADG413--Incredible Audio Switch IC

Two of my favorite social media (S&M) things: IMSAI Guy's Chip of the Day vlog and finding a great surplus electronics deal on the web. 

This time I do both: my own chip of the day (more like chip of the quarter?  I blame my day job...)--an audio/video frequency switch IC I found online at a great surplus price: Analog Device's ADG413BR.

 


MUX AND FLUX


Audio/digital switch IC's--MUX'es or "multiplexers"--are extremely useful for what we do. The Roland Jupiter 8 (schematic here) and Oberheim OBXa (here) used them--inside these two undeniable classics it's CD4053 and CD4051 mux IC's. 

Details about MCU control of this IC family can be found here and here

The ADG413 is a 4 channel switch with superb specs--50V rail-to-rail supply range compared to the CD4051's 20V, for instance.  

The problem with these high performance switch IC's: they can be expensive; Digikey US sells the ADG413BRZ for $9.08USD in small quantities, compared to 79c each for 4051's on Amazon. 

I'll stick to CD4051's?

Not so fast!! An AudioDiWHY favorite, The Electronic Goldmine, had ADG413BR's on sale recently for $1.79USD each. The 413BR was an obsolete version of the current BRZ IC; the only difference I could see: the surplus parts were not RoHS compliant

(Better to use non-ROHS parts than throw them away--but if they have to go, please get rid of them sensibly....)

An aside: I love The Electronic Goldmine. Hobbyist-friendly surplus stores are a dying breed with many of the great ones like Haltek long gone. Goldmine keeps fighting the good fight. Sign up for their 4AM daily email flyer (here)--good way to start your work day. 


Lifetime buy....


They arrived quickly and I got them ready for the bench.

SOIC: an adapter was needed for breadboarding





Ready to roll....


QUICK WORD FROM THIS BLOG'S SPONSOR


Many thanks to PCBWAY for sponsoring this blog and for all the help they've provided over the years. You can help out this blog in a big way by checking out PCBWAY, here


As soon as I get my first ADG413 based PCB laid out, I'll send the gerber to PCBWAY along with any other fabrication needs, including 3D printing and assembly

PCBWAY is super fast, super friendly, and does great work. Please consider using PCBWAY for your next audio project. 

MAKING BALLOON ANIMALS?


With two ADG413's soldered up it was time to see if I could lay out basic switch circuits:

I still hate breadboarding....


....but I'm slowly getting better. A bit. I have found extreme patience necessary, along with using a quality breadboard and checking my work early and often.

Using the 413 to switch LED's off and on. Seems working!

 
Wiring used for ADG413 tests. "IN" represents logic inputs. The 10K pulldown was necessary; I used 12V for Vdd, GND for VSS, and 5V for logic but found the IC accepted a wide range of voltages for rails and logic. Nice! Also, Pins 6/7 are one of 4 I/O pairs, signals can flow source to drain or drain-source, makes no difference.


For breadboard sanity I used a CD4069 hex inverter for ADG413 pins "IN2" and "IN3". For MCU control you'd do this in software.





 A few ideas....


The ADG413 let me create common switch configurations without using a lot of data lines:


1-to-4 multiplexer:



Dual SPDT's




4 SPST's:



DPDT:



1:8 multiplexer using a 74HC595. Use more IC's and get as many channels as you want.


Good tutorial for the 74HC595 IC is here.


OUTTRO


OK enough for now. I bought a lot of ADG413's so (hopefully) they make it into future designs--hours of fun! 

In the meantime, ROHS well, AI well, and above all: don't breathe the fumes.

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Analog Devices ADG413--Incredible Audio Switch IC

Two of my favorite social media (S&M) things:  IMSAI Guy's   Chip of the Day vlog and finding a great surplus electronics deal on th...