CMOS magnetic field sensor using a pick-up loop: for measuring electric currents

This thesis describes the design of a CMOS magnetic field sensor system for measuring electronic currents. A hybrid system, using Hall plates and a pick-up loop is chosen to obtain improved performance compared to conventional Hall based magnetic field sensors. The pick up loop enables to reduce the current consumption and increases the...

Digital backend for a resistor-based Wien Bridge temperature sensor

This thesis describes the design of a digital backend for a resistor-based temperature sensor realized in a 180nm CMOS process. The sensor’s analog frontend outputs a bitstream at 500kHz, which is then decimated and linearized with the help of 3 different polynomials, whose coefficients are obtained after a calibration process. A polynomial...

Optical sensing of chlorophyll(in) with dual-spectrum Si LEDs in SOI-CMOS technology

Small and low-cost chlorophyll sensors are popular in agricultural sector and food-quality control.Combining such sensors with silicon CMOS electronics is challenged by the absence of silicon-integrated light-sources.We experimentally achieve optical absorption sensing of chlorophyll based pigments with silicon (Si) micro light-emitting...

A 16 MHz CMOS RC Frequency Reference With ±90 ppm Inaccuracy From -45 °C to 85 °C

This article presents a 16-MHz RC frequency reference implemented in a standard 180-nm CMOS process. It consists of a frequency-locked loop (FLL) in which the output frequency of a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) is locked to the frequency-phase characteristic of a Wien bridge RC filter. Since it is made from on-chip resistors and...

Oscillator based Analog-to-Digital Converter for Action Potential Readout in Microelectrode Arrays

The functioning of the brain depends on the interplay between a large number of neurons. To understand the information processing in neuronal networks, we need tools to record the electrical activity of cells at high resolution. Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) are predominantly used to measure neuronal activity<br/>at high spatial and temporal...

3DOF(xyθ_z) measurement of a planar stage with one single 1D CCD from a 2D Moiré pattern

As technology is advancing, the need for precision stages is increasing. These stages are being used with (electron) microscopes for scientific research and industrial applications. They can be operated manually or by actuators, where the motorized stages are quite expensive in general and the cost increase significantly if better performance is...

A 6.4 nW 1.7% Relative Inaccuracy CMOS Temperature Sensor Utilizing Sub-thermal Drain Voltage Stabilization and Frequency Locked Loop

A 6.4 nW 1.7% relative inaccuracy (R-IA) CMOS sub-thermal drain voltage-based temperature sensor is proposed. The proposed stabilized sub-thermal drain voltage current generator achieves a highly linear PTAT output without nonlinearity fitting or post-fabrication trimming and increases the accuracy of the sensor. A combination of the current...

Integrated CMOS Current Sensing Systems for Coulomb Counters

Coulomb counting is a widely used method to estimate battery state-of-charge (SoC). It involves measuring and integrating the battery’s current to determine its net charge flow.

CMOS Wide-Bandwidth Magnetic Sensors for Contactless Current Measurements

This Ph.D. dissertation describes the theory and realization of wide-bandwidth magnetic sensors for current measurements which breach the conventional offset and noise constraints in CMOS processes. These are achieved by several circuit-level and system-level innovations, including the use of three orthogonal ripple reduction loops (RRLs) in...

A Low-Power CMOS Wind Sensor

This work describes a low-power and low-cost alternative to mechanical wind sensors, suitable for volume production in standard CMOS processes. The CMOS wind sensor operates in the electro-thermal domain; therefore, it has no moving parts and therefore requires very little maintenance. Moreover, the CMOS wind sensor is an active sensor, compared...

Multipath Wide-Bandwidth CMOS Magnetic Sensors

This paper proposes a multipath multisensor architecture for CMOS magnetic sensors, which effectively extends their bandwidth without compromising either their offset or resolution. Two designs utilizing the proposed architecture were fabricated in a 0.18-μm standard CMOS process. In the first, the combination of spinning-current Hall sensors...

A High-Resolution, Resistor-Based Temperature Sensor

This thesis focuses on developing a high-resolution, energy-efficient smart temperature sensor. A resistor-based temperature-sensing structure is chosen as the core of the sensor. To digitize the core output, a low-noise readout circuit is developed. The design was fabricated in a standard CMOS technology, and the measurements were conducted to...

An Energy-Efficient, Resistor-Based, Smart Temperature Sensor

Mobility-based Time References for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks require small low-cost radios to enable communication among its nodes. Since those radios must be fully integrated to reduce cost and size, integration is required also for their on-board time references, which are needed to achieve synchronization with the other nodes. To deal with the lower accuracy of integrated...

A 200 μA Duty-Cycled PLL for Wireless Sensor Nodes in 65 nm CMOS

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Silicon micro-optics for smart light control

We present an overview of the results of our recent research in the field of adaptive optical components based on silicon microtechnologies, including membrane deformable mirrors, spatial light modulators, liquid-crystal correctors, wavefront sensors, and both spherical and aspherical micro-optical components. We aim at the realization of...

CMOS-based Integrated Wavefront Sensor

This thesis addresses the design, implementation and performance of an integrated Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor suitable for real-time operation and compatible with a standard technology. A wavefront sensor can be used for the detection of distortions in the profile of a light beam or of an optical component.With such a sensor, one can, for...