Performance optimization of a Front-End Circuit for Capacitance Measurements using Grey Wolf Algorithm

Abstract

This study aims to optimize certain performance parameters of an analog front-end circuit for capacitance measurement. The front-end circuit produces an output voltage in proportional to the measured capacitance. This output voltage should be demodulated by means of digital or analog demodulators to extract the capacitance information. In order to obtain an accurate and precise capacitance measurement, the front-end circuit’s performance parameters must be optimized carefully. In this paper, a transimpedance amplifier consisting of an operational amplifier with a feedback resistor and a feedback capacitor is employed as the front-end topology. The transimpedance amplifier’s gain, settling time and outputreferred total noise are the performance criteria which form a multi-parameter optimization problem. These performance criteria primarily depend on the values of the feedback resistor, feedback capacitor and operation frequency. Grey Wolf optimizer Algorithm is used to find these values optimally. To verify the algorithm’s results, SPICE based simulations are carried out for two capacitance measurements.