A Micropower Front End for Three-Axis Capacitive Microaccelerometers

Author

Kämäräinen, Mika ; Saukoski, Mikko ; Paavola, Matti ; Järvinen, Jere A M ; Laiho, Mika ; Halonen, Kari A I

Author_Institution

Electron. Circuit Design Lab., Helsinki Univ. of Technol., Espoo, Finland

Volume

58

Issue

10

fYear

2009

Firstpage

3642

Lastpage

3652

Abstract

This paper presents the measurement results of a micropower switched-capacitor front end that was designed for three-axis capacitive microaccelerometers. The designed front end can reduce the distorting effects of the electrostatic forces and can be used in single-ended and differential modes. The front end was realized with a 0.13-mum bipolar complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor process. The silicon area of the front end is 0.30 mm². The measurements show that the functionality of the front end follows the theory in both modes. Consuming 20 muA from a 1.8-V supply, it achieves noise densities of 424, 607, and 590 mug/radic(Hz) in the x-, y-, and z-directions, respectively, when each mass is sampled at 1 kHz in the differential mode.

Keywords

MOS integrated circuits; accelerometers; bipolar integrated circuits; capacitive sensors; micromechanical devices; switched capacitor networks; bipolar complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor process; current 20 muA; differential mode; electrostatic force distortion effect; frequency 1 kHz; micropower switched-capacitor front end; noise density; single-ended mode; three-axis capacitive microaccelerometer; voltage 1.8 V; Electrostatic forces; low-power circuit; sensor front end; switched-capacitor circuit; three-axis capacitive accelerometer;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TIM.2009.2018700

Filename

5089473