Analog Circuits and Systems for Voltage-Mode and Current-Mode Sensor Interfacing Applications

244 Pages·2011·3.99 MB·English

by  Andrea De Marcellis

Analog Circuits and Systems for Voltage-Mode
and Current-Mode Sensor Interfacing Applications
ANALOGCIRCUITSANDSIGNALPROCESSINGSERIES
ConsultingEditor:MohammedIsmail.OhioStateUniversity
Forfurthervolumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/7381
Andrea De Marcellis (cid:2) Giuseppe Ferri
Analog Circuits and Systems
for Voltage-Mode
and Current-Mode Sensor
Interfacing Applications
123
AndreaDeMarcellis GiuseppeFerri
ElectricalandInformationEngineering ElectricalandInformationEngineering
Department Department
UniversityofL’Aquila UniversityofL’Aquila
viaG.Gronchi18 viaG.Gronchi18
67100L’Aquila 67100L’Aquila
Italy Italy
[email protected] [email protected]
ISBN978-90-481-9827-6 e-ISBN978-90-481-9828-3
DOI10.1007/978-90-481-9828-3
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011931893
(cid:3)c SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2011
Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorby
anymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recordingorotherwise,withoutwritten
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ofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.
Printedonacid-freepaper
SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com)
Preface
This book proposes recent scientific results concerning the research of novel
electronic integrated circuits and system solutions for sensor interfacing,many of
whichdevelopedbytheauthors,utilizingthedeepexperienceinanalogmicroelec-
tronicsoftheresearchteamfromUniversityofL’Aquilabothinsensorfieldandin
Low Voltage Low Power analog integrated circuit design with Voltage-Mode and
Current-Mode approaches. In particular, this monograph describes and discusses
a number of analog interfaces, suitable for resistive, capacitive and temperature
sensors,someofwhichdevelopedbytheauthorsalsoinastandardCMOSintegrated
technology(AMS0.35(cid:2)m).
Thebookisorganizedasfollows.
After a fast “excursus” on physicaland chemical sensors (Chap.1) and a state
of art analysis of the main resistive, capacitive and temperature sensors and their
related basic analog interfaces (Chap.2), novel and improved solutions of Low
Voltage Low Power analog circuits and systems, designed both in Voltage-Mode
(Chap.3) and in Current-Mode (Chap.4) approaches, suitable for portable sensor
interfacing applications, will be described and investigated. Then, the lock-in
techniquewill be considered(Chap.5) with the aim to improvethe sensor system
characteristics.IntheAppendices,theSecondGenerationCurrentConveyortheory
and applications, together with some novel design implementations at transistor
level, as well as the noise and offset compensation techniques for the design of
high-accuracyinstrumentationvoltageamplifiers,willbealsodescribed.
Moreindetail,concerningresistivesensors,thebookdescribesthemaindesign
aspects and different circuit solutions of the first analog front-ends, performing
resistance-to-voltage (for small measurand variations) and resistance-to-period or
frequency (for wide variation ranges) conversions, both in Voltage-Mode and in
Current-Modeapproachesand using ACas well asDC excitationvoltagesforthe
sensors;also,ithasbeenprovedthattheanaloglock-inamplifiercanbeemployed
forenhancingresistivesensorsystemsensitivityandresolution.
v
vi Preface
Regarding capacitive sensors, both the Voltage-Mode and the Current-Mode
approacheshavebeenutilizedtodevelopsuitableinterfacesystemsconvertingthe
capacitancechangeofthesensingelementintoavoltageorafrequencyvariation.
Moreover, temperature sensors and their interfaces have been described. They
have proved to be necessary in many sensor systems, since their characteristics
are strictly related to operatingthermalconditions.In this sense, electronic heater
circuitsfortemperaturecontrolareshown.
Wewanttomentionthefactthatafteranaccuratedesignbymeansofasuitable
simulation software, as ORCAD PSpice and CADENCE Virtuoso-Affirma, some
of the described circuits (in particular, those developed by the authors of this
book)havebeenimplementedthroughprototypeboards,withcommercialdiscrete
components, so to characterize and validate the new ideas, studying also other
possible improvements.The final step has been, in some cases, the fabrication of
the integrated circuit on-chip, in a standard CMOS technology,which follows the
implementationofthecircuitlayout.
This book originated from the Ph.D. final dissertation of the first author and
wants to give an overview of Voltage-Mode and Current-Mode analog sensor
interfaces. In our opinion, it can be useful for analog electronic circuit designers,
as well as for sensor companies, but can be also utilized as reference text book
in advanced graduate or Ph.D. courses covering these topics. In this sense, the
presented interfaces can be easily fabricated both as prototype boards, for a fast
characterization (in this sense, they can be simply implemented by students and
technicians),andasintegratedcircuits,also usingmoderndesigntechniques(well
knowntospecialistanalogmicroelectronicstudentsanddesigners).
Wehopethatthisbookwillbeinterestedandusefulforreadersatthesamelevel
ofwhichithasbeenexcitinganddifficulttowriteit.
Furthermore, we want to address some acknowledgements. In particular, we
want to thank Prof. Arnaldo D’Amico (University of Roma Tor Vergata) to have
been an invaluable reference in all our working and scientific research activities.
Then, we thank all the people with whom we have collaboratedand discussed, at
different levels, in particular, in an alphabetic order, Carlo Cantalini, Alessandro
Depari, Claudia Di Carlo, Corrado Di Natale, Christian Falconi, Ferdinando
Feliciangeli, Alessandra Flammini, Fabrizio Mancini, Paolo Mantenuto, Daniele
Marioli, EugenioMartinelli,Roberto Paolesse, AndreaPelliccione, Stefano Ricci,
EmilianoSisinni,VincenzoStornelliandallthestudentswhohelpedustodevelop,
simulateandtestsomeofthedescribedcircuits.
Finally, we would like especially to thank our families for their continuous
supportandencouragementineveryouractivityanddailylife.
UniversityofL’Aquila,2011 AndreaDeMarcellis
GiuseppeFerri
Contents
Introduction ...................................................................... ix
1 PhysicalandChemicalSensors ............................................ 1
1.1 SensorsandTransducers:Principles,Classifications
andCharacteristics..................................................... 1
1.2 SensorMainParameters............................................... 7
1.3 Piezoelectric,Ferroelectric,ElectretandPyroelectricSensors...... 9
1.4 MagneticFieldSensors................................................ 14
1.5 OpticalRadiationSensors............................................. 16
1.6 DisplacementandForceSensors...................................... 18
1.7 Ion-SelectiveElectrodesBasedSensors.............................. 20
1.8 GasChromatographandGasSensors ................................ 23
1.9 HumiditySensors...................................................... 26
1.10 BiosensorsandBiomedicalSensors.................................. 28
References..................................................................... 30
2 Resistive,CapacitiveandTemperatureSensorInterfacing
Overview ..................................................................... 37
2.1 ResistiveSensors ...................................................... 37
2.2 CapacitiveSensors..................................................... 46
2.3 TemperatureandThermalSensors.................................... 54
2.4 SmartSensorSystems................................................. 59
2.5 CircuitsforSensorApplications:SensorInterfaces ................. 61
2.5.1 Low-VoltageLow-PowerVoltage-Modeand
Current-ModeAnalogSensorInterfaces..................... 64
2.6 Basic SensorInterfacingTechniques:Introduction
toSignalConditioning ................................................ 66
2.6.1 ResistiveSensorsBasicInterfacing .......................... 67
2.6.2 CapacitiveSensorsBasicInterfacing......................... 69
2.6.3 Temperature Sensors: Basic Interfacing
andControlSystems .......................................... 71
References..................................................................... 71
vii
viii Contents
3 TheVoltage-ModeApproachinSensorInterfacesDesign .............. 75
3.1 IntroductiontoVoltage-ModeResistiveSensorInterfaces.......... 75
3.2 TheDCExcitationVoltageforResistiveSensors.................... 79
3.2.1 UncalibratedDC-ExcitedSensorBasedSolutions .......... 82
3.2.2 FastDC-ExcitedResistiveSensorInterfaces ................ 85
3.3 TheACExcitationVoltageforResistiveSensors.................... 97
3.3.1 UncalibratedAC-ExcitedSensorBasedSolutions .......... 101
3.3.2 EvolutionsofAC-ExcitedSensorBasedSolutions.......... 121
3.3.3 FastUncalibratedAC-ExcitedSensorInterfaces
withReducedMeasurementTimes........................... 128
3.4 Voltage-ModeApproachinCapacitiveSensorInterfacing.......... 134
3.5 TemperatureSensorInterfaces:CircuitsforTemperatureControl.. 140
3.5.1 AnIntegratedTemperatureControlSystemfor
ResistiveGasSensors......................................... 145
References..................................................................... 150
4 TheCurrent-ModeApproachinSensorInterfacesDesign ............. 155
4.1 IntroductiontoCurrent-ModeResistiveSensorInterfaces.......... 155
4.2 TheACExcitationVoltageforResistive/CapacitiveSensors ....... 157
4.2.1 Wien Oscillators as Small Range
Resistive/CapacitiveSensorInterfaces....................... 157
4.2.2 Astable Multivibrator as Wide Range
Resistive/CapacitiveSensorInterface........................ 160
4.2.3 Uncalibrated Solution for High-Value
Wide-RangeResistive/CapacitiveSensors................... 163
4.2.4 UncalibratedSolutionforSmall-RangeResistiveSensors.. 172
4.3 UncalibratedDC-ExcitedResistiveSensorInterface................ 174
References..................................................................... 178
5 DetectionofSmallandNoisySignalsinSensorInterfacing:
TheAnalogLock-inAmplifier ............................................. 181
5.1 SignalRecoveryTechniquesOverview:TheSNREnhancement... 181
5.2 TheLock-inAmplifier................................................. 185
5.3 AnIntegratedLVLPAnalogLock-inAmplifierfor
LowConcentrationDetectionofGas................................. 188
5.4 AnAutomaticAnalogLock-inAmplifierforAccurate
DetectionofVerySmallGasQuantities.............................. 198
References..................................................................... 203
Appendix1:TheSecondGenerationCurrent-Conveyor(CCII) ........... 205
Appendix2:NoiseandOffsetCompensationTechniques .................. 211
References..................................................................... 223
BookOverview ................................................................... 225
AuthorBiographies ............................................................. 227
Index .............................................................................. 229
Introduction
Modernsilicon Very LargeScale Integration(VLSI)ComplementaryMetal-Oxide
Semiconductor (CMOS) technologies can place and interconnect several million
transistors on a single Integrated Circuit (IC) having sizes approximately lower
than 100 mm2. These integrated technologies have evolved over a long period of
time, starting with only few transistors per IC, then doubling them about every
18–24 months (according to the well-known Moore’s Law), towards the present
high densities (about 1–2 billions of transistors, considering recently developed
commercial microprocessors). In parallel with the technology evolution, also
Computer-AidedDesign(CAD)andelectronicdesignautomation(EDA)toolshave
beendevelopedwiththe aimto helpICdesigners.Throughthe use ofthesetools,
design teams have employed very “experienced” designers completely embedded
in the same tool management. Therefore, IC functionalities, together with the
CAD/EDA tools which guide the design towards the IC fabrication, have made
availabletheactualtechnologytosystemdesigners.
All these facilities allow to detect and quantify the bigger part of natural
phenomena related to the energy transformation of the parameters, through the
use of sensors (i.e., sensing elements), their electronic interfaces and suitable
instrumentationandmeasurementsystems.
Infact,recentprogressesinphysics,chemistry,electronics,materialscience,bot-
tom/upandtop/downtechnologieshaveallowedtheintegrationofhighperformance
and low-cost low-size systems, achieving the so-called System-on-Chip (SoC),
for a variety of applications (i.e., sensor interfacing, signal processing and signal
conditioning systems, medical and biological instrumentations, Micro-Electronic-
Mechanical System (MEMS), etc.). In particular, one of the main aims of actual
sensor research is the design of full integrated electronic systems, formed by the
sensor,itsfirstanaloginterfaceandtheprocessingcircuitry,possiblyinaminiatur-
ized microelectronic environment(i.e., microsystem). Furthermore, the capability
to minimize the sensor element to a nano-scale level and the integration of the
sensoritself withtheelectroniccircuitbymicromachiningandsilicontechnology,
respectively, have opened also new opportunities for electronic interfaces. In this
ix