Abstract
This paper presents a charge-balanced readout circuit for MEMS capacitive accelerometers. The focus of this work is a design with a low-noise and low area consumption while ensuring the essential linearity and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) for automotive applications. The readout circuit is composed of a charge-balanced single-ended input C/V stage followed by a second order sigma-delta modulator. The C/V stage uses a Gm stage combined with an integrator to reduce its noise contribution. The measurement results of the readout circuit show a noise floor of 62 $\mu g/{\sqrt {\mathrm{ Hz}}}$ and a temperature dependent offset smaller than ±0.6 mg after compensation. The measured dynamic range of the complete interface, including readout circuit and sensor, is 95.5 dB. The measured EMC is below 2 mg. The accelerometer readout circuit has been designed in a 130nm technology. Its power and area consumption is 1.4 mW and 0.26mm2.
Highlights
M ICRO-ELECTROMECHANICAL (MEMS) accelerometers are employed in various applications especially in automotive, such as airbag or electronic stability control (ESP), as well as in consumer applications
There exists a continuous demand for high-performance and low-noise MEMS readout circuits for consumer as well as automotive applications
In safety critical automotive applications, the circuits may be exposed to harsh working conditions, as for instance high temperature range, electromagnetic interferences (EMI) or high vibrations
Summary
M ICRO-ELECTROMECHANICAL (MEMS) accelerometers are employed in various applications especially in automotive, such as airbag or electronic stability control (ESP), as well as in consumer applications. The input range in this architecture was significantly lower than required for automotive applications and no information about the (measured) noise and linearity performance was provided.
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More From: IEEE Open Journal of the Solid-State Circuits Society
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