• ETRI Journal
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.70-78
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• 2007

A new low-voltage CMOS interface circuit with digital output for piezo-resistive transducer is proposed. An input current sensing configuration is used to detect change in piezo-resistance due to applied pressure and to allow low-voltage circuit operation. A simple 1-bit first-order delta-sigma modulator is used to produce an output digital bitstream. The proposed interface circuit is realized in a 0.35 ${\mu}m$ CMOS technology and draws less than 200 ${\mu}A$ from a single 1.5 V power supply voltage. Simulation results show that the circuit can achieve an equivalent output resolution of 9.67 bits with less than 0.23% non-linearity error.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.251-257
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• 2015

This work presents modelling and simulation of a readout integrated circuit (ROIC) design considering pair-wise serial configuration along with thermal modeling of an uncooled microbolometer array. A fully differential approach is used at the input stage in order to reduce fixed pattern noise due to the process variation and self-heating-related issues. Each pair of microbolometers is pulse-biased such that they both fall under the same self-heating point along the self-heating trend line. A ${\pm}10%$ process variation is considered. The proposed design is simulated with a reference input image consisting of an array of $127{\times}92$ pixels. This configuration uses only one unity gain differential amplifier along with a single 14-bit analog-to-digital converter in order to minimize the dynamic range requirement of the ROIC.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.479-485
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• 2015

A resistance deviation-to-time interval converter based on dual-slope integration using second generation current conveyors (CCIIs) is designed for connecting resistive bridge sensors with a digital system. It consists of a differential integrator using CCIIs, a voltage comparator, and a digital control logic for controlling four analog switches. Experimental results exhibit that a conversion sensitivity amounts to $15.56{\mu}s/{\Omega}$ over the resistance deviation range of $0-200{\Omega}$ and its linearity error is less than ${\pm}0.02%$. Its temperature stability is less than $220ppm/^{\circ}C$ in the temperature range of $-25-85^{\circ}C$. Power dissipation of the converter is 60.2 mW.

• 한국초전도학회:학술대회논문집
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• v.15
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• pp.11-11
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.445-450
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• 2012

We have developed an implantable wireless sensor for real time pressure monitoring of blood circulation system. MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) technology was adopted as a sensor development method. The sensor is composed of photolithographically patterned inductors and a distributed capacitor in gap between the inductors. A resulting LC resonant system produces its resonant frequency in range of 269 to 284 MHz at 740 mmHg. To read the resonant frequency changed by blood pressure variation, we developed a custom readout system based on a network analyzer functionality. The bench-top testing of the pressure sensors showed good mechanical and electrical functionality. A sensor was implanted into tibial artery of farm pig, and interrogated wirelessly with accurate readings of blood pressure. After 45 days, the sensor's electrical response and histopathology were studied with good frequency reading and biocompatibility.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.428-433
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• 2020

Recently, the on-chip autofocus (AF) function has become essential to the CMOS image sensor. An auto-focus usually operates using phase detection of the photocurrent difference from a pair of AF pixels that have focused or defocused. However, the phase-detection method requires a pair of AF pixels for comparison of readout. Therefore, the pixel variation may reduce AF performance. In this paper, we propose a color-selective AF pixel with a plasmonic nanostructure in a 0.9 μ㎡ pixel. The suggested AF pixel requires one pixel for AF function. The plasmonic nanostructure uses metal-insulator-metal (MIM) stack arrays instead of a color filter (CF). The color filters are formed at the subwavelength, and they transmit the specific wavelength of light according to the stack period and incident angles. For the optical analysis of the pixel, a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation was conducted. The analysis showed that the MIM stack arrays in the pixels perform as an AF pixel. As the primary metric of AF performance, the resulting AF contrasts are 1.8 for the red pixels, 1.6 for green, and 1.5 blue. Based on the simulation results, we confirmed the autofocusing performance of the MIM stack arrays.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.67-74
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• 2006

We have developed a control electronics system for an infrared detector array of KASINICS (KASI Near Infrared Camera System), which is a new ground-based instrument of the Korea Astronomy and Space science Institute (KASI). Equipped with a $512{\times}512$ InSb array (ALADDIN III Quadrant, manufactured by Raytheon) sensitive from 1 to $5{\mu}m$, KASINICS will be used at J, H, Ks, and L-bands. The controller consists of DSP(Digital Signal Processor), Bias, Clock, and Video boards which are installed on a single VME-bus backplane. TMS320C6713DSP, FPGA(Field Programmable Gate Array), and 384-MB SDRAM(Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) are included in the DSP board. DSP board manages entire electronics system, generates digital clock patterns and communicates with a PC using USB 2.0 interface. The clock patterns are downloaded from a PC and stored on the FPGA. UART is used for the communication with peripherals. Video board has 4 channel ADC which converts video signal into 16-bit digital numbers. Two video boards are installed on the controller for ALADDIN array. The Bias board provides 16 dc bias voltages and the Clock board has 15 clock channels. We have also coded a DSP firmware and a test version of control software in C-language. The controller is flexible enough to operate a wide range of IR array and CCD. Operational tests of the controller have been successfully finished using a test ROIC (Read-Out Integrated Circuit).

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

Measurement of magnetic signals generated from electric activity of myocardium provides useful information for the functional diagnosis of heart diseases. Key technical component of the magnetocardiography (MCG) technology is SQUID. To measure MCG signals with high signal-to-noise ratio, sensitive SQUID magnetic field sensors are needed. Present magnetic field sensors based on Nb SQUIDs have field sensitivity good enough to measure most of MCG signals. However, for accurate measurement of fine signal pattern or detection of local atrial fibrillation signals, we may need higher field sensitivity. In addition to field sensitivity, economic aspect of the SQUID system is also important. To simplify the SQUID readout electronics, the output voltage or flux-to-voltage transfer of SQUID should be large enough so that direct measurement of SQUID output can be done using room-temperature preamplifiers. Double relaxation oscillation SQUID (DROS), having about 10 times larger flux-to-voltage transfers than those of DC-SQUIDs, was shown to be a good choice to make the electronics compact. For effective cancellation of external noise inside a thin economic shielded room, first-order axial gradiometer with high balance, simple structure and long-baseline is needed. We developed a technology to make the axial gradiometer compact using direct bonding of superconductive wires between pickup coil and input coil. Conventional insert has mechanical support to hold the gradiometer array, and the dewar neck has equal diameter with the dewar bottom. Boiling of the liquid He can generate mechanical vibrations in the gradiometer array due to mechanical connection structure. Elimination of the mechanical support, and direct mounting of the gradiometer array into the dewar bottom can reduce the dewar neck diameter, resulting in the reduction of liquid He consumption.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2004.08c
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• pp.482-485
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• 2004

We fabricated a hybrid bulk/fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel image sensor. The active pixel is comprised of reset and source follower transistors on the SOI seed wafer, while the pinned photodiode and readout gate and floating diffusion are fabricated on the SOI handle wafer after the removal of the buried oxide. The source of dark current is eliminated by hybrid bulk/FDSOI pixel structure between localized oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) and photodiode(PD). By using the low noise hybrid pixel structure, dark currents qm be suppressed significantly. The pinned photodiode can also be optimized for quantum efficiency and reduce the noise of dark current. The spectral response of the pinned photodiode on the SOI handle wafer is very flat between 400 nm and 700 nm and the dark current that is higher than desired is about 10 nA/cm2 at a $V_{DD}$ of 2 V.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.30 no.5
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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.