An SPI communication frame with the ADS131M03-Q1 is made of words. Words on DIN can contain commands, register settings during a register write, or a CRC of the input data. Words on DOUT can contain command responses, register settings during a register read, ADC conversion data, or CRC of the output data.

Words can be 16, 24, or 32 bits. The word size is configured by the WLENGTH[1:0] bits in the MODE register. The device defaults to a 24-bit word size. Commands, responses, CRC, and registers always contain 16 bits of actual data. These words are always most significant bit (MSB) aligned, and therefore the least significant bits (LSBs) are zero-padded to accommodate 24- or 32-bit word sizes. ADC conversion data are nominally 24 bits. The ADC truncates eight LSBs when the device is configured for 16-bit communication. There are two options for 32-bit communication available for ADC data that are configured by the WLENGTH[1:0] bits in the MODE register. Either the ADC data can be LSB padded with zeros or the data can be MSB sign extended.