Analysis of Sensitivity and Power Consumption of Chopping Techniques for Integrated Capacitive Sensor Interface Circuits

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In this paper, parameters related to the sensitivity of the interface circuits for capacitive sensors are determined. Both the input referred noise and capacitance of the input transistors are important for capacitive sensitivity. Chopping is an effective technique for signal conditioning circuits because of its capability of reducing circuit noise at low frequencies. The capacitive sensitivity and power consumption of various chopping techniques including the dual chopper amplifier (DCA), single chopper amplifier (SCA) and two-stage single chopper amplifier (TCA) are extracted for different values of total gain and sensor capacitance. The minimum sensitivity for each technique will be extracted based on the gain and sensor capacitance. It will be shown that designation of the amplifier and distribution of gain in the TCA and DCA are important for sensitivity. A design procedure for chopper amplifiers that illustrates the steps required to achieve either the best or the desired sensitivity while minimizing power consumption will be presented. It will be shown that for a small sensor capacitance and large total gain, the DCA has the best sensitivity, while for a large sensor capacitance and a lower gain, the SCA is preferable. The TCA is the desired architecture for an average total gain and a large sensor capacitance. Moreover, when the power consumption is the key requirement and the maximum sensitivity is not the goal; the TCA works best due to its potential to decrease the power consumption.