• 전자공학회논문지
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• 제51권10호
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• pp.80-86
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• 2014

본 연구를 통해서 정전용량 방식의 이차원 마이크로볼로미터를 위한 저잡음 신호취득 회로를 연구하였다. 잡음 대역폭이 매우 낮고 픽셀 면적이 작기 때문에 비 적분형 방식의 간단하고 효과적인 픽셀 단위의 회로를 사용했다. 또한, 가장 문제가 되는 kT/C 잡음을 줄이고 전력소모를 낮추기 위해 새로운 CDS 방식을 열 단위의 회로에 사용했다. 제안하는 회로는 $0.35-{\mu}m$ 2-poly 4-metal CMOS 공정을 이용하여 설계했고, 마이크로볼로미터의 픽셀 크기는 $50{\mu}m{\times}50{\mu}m$이다. 제안하는 신호취득회로는 볼로미터의 kT/C 잡음 등을 포함한 저주파 잡음을 효과적으로 제거하며, 제작된 칩에 대한 잡음 측정을 통하여 이를 검증하였다. 제안하는 회로는 간단한 신호취득 회로에 비해 그 잡음을 30 %에서 55 % 이하까지 개선할 수 있으며, 전체 감지시스템의 잡음등가온도차(NETD)를 21.5 mK 정도로 낮출 수 있다.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.83-91
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• 2014

This paper presents a capacitive readout circuit for tri-axes microaccelerometer with sub-fF offset calibration capability. A charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) with correlated double sampling (CDS) and digital to equivalent capacitance converter (DECC) is proposed. The DECC is implemented using 10-bit DAC, charge transfer switches, and a charge-storing capacitor. The DECC circuit can realize the equivalent capacitance of sub-fF range with a smaller area and higher accuracy than previous offset cancelling circuit using series-connected capacitor arrays. The readout circuit and MEMS sensing element are integrated in a single package. The supply voltage and the current consumption of analog blocks are 3.3 V and $230{\mu}A$, respectively. The sensitivities of tri-axes are measured to be 3.87 mg/LSB, 3.87 mg/LSB and 3.90 mg/LSB, respectively. The offset calibration which is controlled by 10-bit DECC has a resolution of 12.4 LSB per step with high linearity. The noise levels of tri-axes are $349{\mu}g$/${\sqrt}$Hz, $341{\mu}g$/${\sqrt}$Hz and $411{\mu}g$/${\sqrt}$Hz, respectively.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.278-285
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• 2012

A digital readout IC for capacitive sensors is presented. Digital capacitance readout circuits suffer from static capacitance of sensors, especially single-ended sensors, and require large passive elements to cancel such DC offset signal. For this reason, to maximize a dynamic range with a small die area, the proposed circuit features digital filters having a coarse and fine compensation steps. Moreover, by employing switched-capacitor circuit for the front-end, correlated double sampling (CDS) technique can be adopted to minimize low-frequency device noise. The proposed circuit targeted 8-kHz signal bandwidth and oversampling ratio (OSR) of 64, thus a $3^{rd}$-order ${\Delta}{\Sigma}$ modulator operating at 1 MH was used for pulse-density-modulated (PDM) output. The proposed IC was designed in a 0.18-${\mu}m$ CMOS mixed-mode process, and occupied $0.86{\times}1.33mm^2$. The measurement results shows suppressed DC power under about -30 dBFS with minimized device flicker noise.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.380-386
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• 2016

This paper presents a compact and low-power on-chip touch sensor and readout circuit using shunt proximity touch sensor and its design scheme. In the proposed touch sensor readout circuit, the touch panel condition depending on the proximity of the finger is directly converted into the corresponding voltage level without additional signal conditioning procedures. Furthermore, the additional circuitry including the comparator and the flip-flop does not consume any static current, which leads to a low-power design scheme. A new prototype touch sensor readout integrated circuit was fabricated using complementally metal oxide silicon (CMOS) $0.18{\mu}m$ technology with core area of $0.032mm^2$ and total current of $125{\mu}A$. Our measurement result shows that an actual 10.4 inches capacitive type touch screen panel (TSP) can detect the finger size from 0 to 1.52 mm, sharply.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제16권6호
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• pp.793-799
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• 2016

A multi-purpose sensor interface that provides dual-mode operation of fingerprint sensing and physiological signal detection is presented. The dual-mode sensing capability is achieved by utilizing inter-pixel shielding patterns as capacitive amplifier's input electrodes. A prototype readout circuit including a fingerprint panel for feasibility verification was fabricated in a $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process. A single-channel readout circuit was implemented and multiplexed to scan two-dimensional fingerprint pixels, where adaptive calibration capability against pixel-capacitance variations was also implemented. Feasibility of the proposed multi-purpose interface was experimentally verified keeping low-power consumption less than 1.9 mW under a 3.3 V supply.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제30권5호
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• pp.644-652
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• 2008

In this paper, a low-power CMOS interface circuit is designed and demonstrated for capacitive sensor applications, which is implemented using a standard 0.35-${\mu}m$ CMOS logic technology. To achieve low-power performance, the low-voltage capacitance-to-pulse-width converter based on a self-reset operation at a supply voltage of 1.5 V is designed and incorporated into a new interface circuit. Moreover, the external pulse signal for the reset operation is made unnecessary by the employment of the self-reset operation. At a low supply voltage of 1.5 V, the new circuit requires a total power consumption of 0.47 mW with ultra-low power dissipation of 157 ${\mu}W$ of the interface-circuit core. These results demonstrate that the new interface circuit with self-reset operation successfully reduces power consumption. In addition, a prototype wireless sensor-module with the proposed circuit is successfully implemented for practical applications. Consequently, the new CMOS interface circuit can be used for the sensor applications in ubiquitous sensor networks, where low-power performance is essential.

• 센서학회지
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.1-6
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• 2019

This paper presents an air flow sensor (AFS) based on a polymer thin film. This AFS primarily consists of a polymer membrane attached to a metal-patterned glass substrate and a temperature-sensing element composed of NiCr. These two components were integrated on a single glass substrate. The AFS measures changes in capacitance caused by deformation of the polymer membrane based on the air flow and simultaneously detects the temperature of the surrounding environment. A readout integrated circuit (ROIC) was also fabricated for signal processing, and an ROIC chip, 1.8 mm by 1.9 mm in size, was packaged with an AFS in the form of a system-in-package module. The total size of the AFS is 1 by 1 cm, and the diameter and thickness of the circular-shaped polymer membrane are 4 mm and $15{\mu}m$, respectively. The rate of change of the capacitance is approximately 11.2% for air flows ranging between 0 and 40 m/s.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제36권5호
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• pp.423-432
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• 2023

With the increasing demand for mobile devices featuring multi-touch operation, extensive research is being conducted on touch screen panel (TSP) Readout ICs (ROICs) that should possess low power consumption, compact chip size, and immunity to external noise. Therefore, this paper discusses capacitive touch sensors and their readout circuits, and it introduces research trends in various circuit designs that are robust against external noise sources. The recent state-of-the-art TSP ROICs have primarily focused on minimizing the impact of parasitic capacitance (Cp) caused by thin panel thickness. The large Cp can be effectively compensated using an area-efficient current compensator and Current Conveyor (CC), while a display noise reduction scheme utilizing a noise-antenna (NA) electrode significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Based on these achievements, it is expected that future TSP ROICs will be capable of stable operation with thinner and flexible Touch Screen Panels (TSPs).

• 센서학회지
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• 제5권5호
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• pp.63-68
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• 1996

출력신호를 검출하기 위한 집적화한 용량형 압력센서를 구현하기 위해서는 센서의 특성에 나쁜 영향을 미치는 기생용량, 온도/열 드리프트 및 누설전류 등의 요소가 개선 되어야 한다. 본 논문에서는 2개의 용량-주파수 변환기와 4비트 디지탈 보상회로로 구성된 새로운 이상적인 인터페이스 회로를 설계 하였다. 이 회로는 센싱 센서 주파수를 기준 센서 주파수로 나누어줌으로써 드리프트 및 누설전류의 영향이 제거될 수 있도록 설계 되었고, 신호 전송시 잡음의 영향이 적은 디지탈 신호를 처리하도록 되어있다. 그르므로 이 회로는 디지탈 비트수를 늘려 줌으로 출력신호의 분해능을 향상 시킬 수 있다. 또 이 회로 중 디지털 부분은 FPGA 칩으로 제작되어 그 작동이 확인 되었다.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.235-243
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• 2016

A low-noise readout integrated circuit (ROIC) for a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphone is presented in this paper. A positive feedback signal amplification technique is applied at the front-end of the ROIC to minimize the effect of the output buffer noise. A feedback scheme in the source follower prevents degradation of the noise performance caused by both the noise of the input reference current and the noise of the power supply. A voltage booster adopts noise filters to cut out the noise of the sensor bias voltage. The prototype ROIC achieves an input referred noise (A-weighted) of -114.2 dBV over an audio bandwidth of 20 Hz to 20 kHz with a $136{\mu}A$ current consumption. The chip is occupied with an active area of $0.35mm^2$ and a chip area of $0.54mm^2$.