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Electronics for Sensors

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Electronic Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 60436

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Special Issue Editors

Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Interests: sensor interfaces; electronics for sensors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
Interests: portable sensors; electronics for sensors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sensors are devices largely applied in daily life and in commercial applications. Sensor systems are sensors completed by suitable electronic interfaces which help to improve the overall performance. As a consequence, particular attention must be paid to design electronics for sensors, also considering the drawbacks related to technology scaling and different technology integrations.

The aim of this Special Issue is to find new possible solutions regarding electronics for sensors, both analog and digital, at different frequencies. Contributors are invited to present and highlight the advances and the latest novel and emergent results on this topic, showing best practices, implementations, and applications.

The Guest Editors invite to submit original research contributions showing the electronics circuits employed in sensors. Additionally, application-oriented and review papers are encouraged.

Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Ferri
Dr. Gianluca Barile
Dr. Alfiero Leoni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Sensor interfaces
  • Analog front-ends
  • CMOS read-out systems
  • Electronics for sensors
  • Acquisition systems
  • Electronic noise
  • Sensor networks

Published Papers (17 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 179 KiB  
Editorial
Electronics for Sensors
by Giuseppe Ferri, Gianluca Barile and Alfiero Leoni
Sensors 2021, 21(6), 2226; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21062226 - 23 Mar 2021
Viewed by 1610
Abstract
Research on systems and circuits for interfacing sensors has always been, and will surely be, a highly prioritized, widespread, and lively topic [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Other

18 pages, 28421 KiB  
Article
The Event Detection System in the NEXT-White Detector
by Raúl Esteve Bosch, José F. Toledo Alarcón, Vicente Herrero Bosch, Ander Simón Estévez, Francesc Monrabal Capilla, Vicente Álvarez Puerta, Javier Rodríguez Samaniego, Marc Querol Segura and Francisco Ballester Merelo
Sensors 2021, 21(2), 673; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21020673 - 19 Jan 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3026
Abstract
This article describes the event detection system of the NEXT-White detector, a 5 kg high pressure xenon TPC with electroluminescent amplification, located in the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (LSC), Spain. The detector is based on a plane of photomultipliers (PMTs) for energy measurements [...] Read more.
This article describes the event detection system of the NEXT-White detector, a 5 kg high pressure xenon TPC with electroluminescent amplification, located in the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (LSC), Spain. The detector is based on a plane of photomultipliers (PMTs) for energy measurements and a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) tracking plane for offline topological event filtering. The event detection system, based on the SRS-ATCA data acquisition system developed in the framework of the CERN RD51 collaboration, has been designed to detect multiple events based on online PMT signal energy measurements and a coincidence-detection algorithm. Implemented on FPGA, the system has been successfully running and evolving during NEXT-White operation. The event detection system brings some relevant and new functionalities in the field. A distributed double event processor has been implemented to detect simultaneously two different types of events thus allowing simultaneous calibration and physics runs. This special feature provides constant monitoring of the detector conditions, being especially relevant to the lifetime and geometrical map computations which are needed to correct high-energy physics events. Other features, like primary scintillation event rejection, or a double buffer associated with the type of event being searched, help reduce the unnecessary data throughput thus minimizing dead time and improving trigger efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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17 pages, 5839 KiB  
Article
Temperature Hysteresis Mechanism and Compensation of Quartz Flexible Accelerometer in Aerial Inertial Navigation System
by Chunxi Zhang, Xin Wang, Lailiang Song and Longjun Ran
Sensors 2021, 21(1), 294; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21010294 - 04 Jan 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3304
Abstract
Strap-down inertial navigation systems (INSs) with quartz flexible accelerometers (QFAs) are widely used in many conditions, particularly in aerial vehicles. Temperature is one of the significant issues impacting the performance of INS. The variation and the gradient of temperature are complex under aerial [...] Read more.
Strap-down inertial navigation systems (INSs) with quartz flexible accelerometers (QFAs) are widely used in many conditions, particularly in aerial vehicles. Temperature is one of the significant issues impacting the performance of INS. The variation and the gradient of temperature are complex under aerial conditions, which severely degrades the navigation performance of INS. Previous work has indicated that parts of navigation errors could be restrained by simple temperature compensation of QFA. However, the temperature hysteresis of the accelerometer is seldom considered in INS. In this paper, the temperature hysteresis mechanism of QFA and the compensation method would be analyzed. Based on the fundamental model, a comprehensive temperature hysteresis model is proposed and the parameters in this model were derived through a temperature cycling test. Furthermore, the comparative experiments in the laboratory were executed to refine the temperature hysteresis model and to verify the effectiveness of the new compensation method. Applying the temperature hysteresis compensation in flight condition, the result shows that the position error (CEP) is restrained from 1.54 nmile/h to 1.29 nmile/h. The proposed temperature hysteresis compensation method improves the performance of INS effectively and feasibly, which could be promoted to other applications of INS in similar temperature changing environment correspondingly. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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14 pages, 1971 KiB  
Article
Development of Microcontroller-Based System for Background Radiation Monitoring
by Andriy Holovatyy, Vasyl Teslyuk, Natalia Kryvinska and Artem Kazarian
Sensors 2020, 20(24), 7322; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20247322 - 20 Dec 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4647
Abstract
An appearance of radiometers and dosimeters on free sale made it possible to provide better radiation safety for citizens. The effects of radiation may not appear all at once. They can manifest themselves in decades to come in future generations, in the form [...] Read more.
An appearance of radiometers and dosimeters on free sale made it possible to provide better radiation safety for citizens. The effects of radiation may not appear all at once. They can manifest themselves in decades to come in future generations, in the form of cancer, genetic mutations, etc. For this reason, we have developed in this paper a microcontroller-based radiation monitoring system. The system determines an accumulated radiation dose for a certain period, as well as gives alarm signals when the rate of the equivalent dose exceeds. The high reliability of this system is ensured by a rapid response to emergency situations: excess of the allowable power of the equivalent radiation dose and the accumulator charge control. Further, we have composed a microcontroller electronic circuit for the monitoring radiation system. Additionally, an operation algorithm, as well as software for the ATmega328P microcontroller of the Arduino Uno board, have been developed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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15 pages, 1796 KiB  
Article
Multifrequency Vector Measurement System for Reliable Vehicle Magnetic Profile Assessment
by Zbigniew Marszalek and Krzysztof Duda
Sensors 2020, 20(17), 4933; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20174933 - 31 Aug 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2056
Abstract
This paper describes the design and the performance of simultaneous, multifrequency impedance measurement system for four inductive-loop (IL) sensors which have been developed for vehicle parameters measurement based on vehicle magnetic profile (VMP) analysis. Simultaneous impedance measurement on several excitation frequencies increases the [...] Read more.
This paper describes the design and the performance of simultaneous, multifrequency impedance measurement system for four inductive-loop (IL) sensors which have been developed for vehicle parameters measurement based on vehicle magnetic profile (VMP) analysis. Simultaneous impedance measurement on several excitation frequencies increases the VMP measurement reliability because typical electromagnetic interferences (EMI) are narrowband, and should not simultaneously affect, in the same way, all measurement bands that are spread in the frequency, i.e., it is expected that at least one measurement band is disturbance-free. The system consists of two standard and two slim IL sensors, specially designed and installed, the analogue front-end, and an industrial computer with digital-to-analogue and analogue-to-digital converters accessed via field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The impedance of the IL sensors is obtained by vector measurement of voltages from auto-balancing bridge (ABB) front-end. Complex voltages are demodulated from excitation frequencies with FIR filters designed with the flat-top windows. The system is capable of delivering VMPs in real-time mode, and also storing voltages for off-line postprocessing and analysis. Field distributions and sensitivities of slim and standard IL sensors are also discussed. Field test confirmed assumed increased reliability of VMP measurement for proposed simultaneous multifrequency operational mode. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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15 pages, 3564 KiB  
Article
Design of a High Precision Ultrasonic Gas Flowmeter
by Jianfeng Chen, Kai Zhang, Leiyang Wang and Mingyue Yang
Sensors 2020, 20(17), 4804; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20174804 - 26 Aug 2020
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4303
Abstract
Aiming at the problems of substantial pressure loss, small range ratio and contact measurement in traditional gas flowmeters, this paper designs a new type of data-filtering ultrasonic gas flowmeter. The flowmeter is composed of hardware circuits such as STM32F407 (ARM Cortex 32-bit microcontroller) [...] Read more.
Aiming at the problems of substantial pressure loss, small range ratio and contact measurement in traditional gas flowmeters, this paper designs a new type of data-filtering ultrasonic gas flowmeter. The flowmeter is composed of hardware circuits such as STM32F407 (ARM Cortex 32-bit microcontroller) main control chip and high-precision timing chip TDC-GP22 (time to digital converter). The software uses a new data-filtering algorithm combining Kalman filtering algorithm and arithmetic average algorithm to improve the measurement accuracy of ultrasonic gas flowmeter. Through experimental comparison, we find that the filtering algorithm effectively reduces the measurement error of the system. Within the flow range of 0.025–4 m3/h, the maximum relative error of the system measurement is 2.7404%, which meets the national standard for the measurement error of the 1.5-level instruments. Moreover, it reduces the zero-drift to about one half of the original, which significantly improves the stability of the system. The gas flowmeter has the characteristics of high accuracy, good stability, low power consumption, and the overall performance is significantly improved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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18 pages, 8212 KiB  
Article
Analytical Study of Front-End Circuits Coupled to Silicon Photomultipliers for Timing Performance Estimation under the Influence of Parasitic Components
by Pietro Antonio Paolo Calò, Savino Petrignani, Michele Di Gioia and Cristoforo Marzocca
Sensors 2020, 20(16), 4428; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20164428 - 08 Aug 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2850
Abstract
Full exploitation of the intrinsic fast timing capabilities of analog silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) requires suitable front-end electronics. Even a parasitic inductance of a few nH, associated to the interconnections between the SiPM and the preamplifier, can significantly degrade the steepness of the detector [...] Read more.
Full exploitation of the intrinsic fast timing capabilities of analog silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) requires suitable front-end electronics. Even a parasitic inductance of a few nH, associated to the interconnections between the SiPM and the preamplifier, can significantly degrade the steepness of the detector response, thus compromising the timing accuracy. In this work, we propose a simple analytic expression for the single-photon response of a SiPM coupled to the front-end electronics, as a function of the main parameters of the detector and the preamplifier, taking into account the parasitic inductance. The model is useful to evaluate the influence of each parameter of the system on the slope of its response and to guide the designer in the definition of the architecture and the specifications for the front-end electronics. The results provided by the model have been successfully compared with experimental measurements from a front-end circuit with variable configuration based on a bipolar junction transistor (BJT), coupled to a 3 × 3 mm2 SiPM stimulated by a fast-pulsed laser source. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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18 pages, 5714 KiB  
Article
Compact Current Reference Circuits with Low Temperature Drift and High Compliance Voltage
by Sara Pettinato, Andrea Orsini and Stefano Salvatori
Sensors 2020, 20(15), 4180; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20154180 - 28 Jul 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2673
Abstract
Highly accurate and stable current references are especially required for resistive-sensor conditioning. The solutions typically adopted in using resistors and op-amps/transistors display performance mainly limited by resistors accuracy and active components non-linearities. In this work, excellent characteristics of LT199x selectable gain amplifiers are [...] Read more.
Highly accurate and stable current references are especially required for resistive-sensor conditioning. The solutions typically adopted in using resistors and op-amps/transistors display performance mainly limited by resistors accuracy and active components non-linearities. In this work, excellent characteristics of LT199x selectable gain amplifiers are exploited to precisely divide an input current. Supplied with a 100 µA reference IC, the divider is able to exactly source either a ~1 µA or a ~0.1 µA current. Moreover, the proposed solution allows to generate a different value for the output current by modifying only some connections without requiring the use of additional components. Experimental results show that the compliance voltage of the generator is close to the power supply limits, with an equivalent output resistance of about 100 GΩ, while the thermal coefficient is less than 10 ppm/°C between 10 and 40 °C. Circuit architecture also guarantees physical separation of current carrying electrodes from voltage sensing ones, thus simplifying front-end sensor-interface circuitry. Emulating a resistive-sensor in the 10 kΩ–100 MΩ range, an excellent linearity is found with a relative error within ±0.1% after a preliminary calibration procedure. Further advantage is that compliance voltage can be opposite in sign of that obtained with a passive component; therefore, the system is also suitable for conditioning active sensors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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13 pages, 3974 KiB  
Article
Magnetic Bioreactor for Magneto-, Mechano- and Electroactive Tissue Engineering Strategies
by Nelson Castro, Margarida M. Fernandes, Clarisse Ribeiro, Vítor Correia, Rikardo Minguez and Senentxu Lanceros-Méndez
Sensors 2020, 20(12), 3340; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20123340 - 12 Jun 2020
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3814
Abstract
Biomimetic bioreactor systems are increasingly being developed for tissue engineering applications, due to their ability to recreate the native cell/tissue microenvironment. Regarding bone-related diseases and considering the piezoelectric nature of bone, piezoelectric scaffolds electromechanically stimulated by a bioreactor, providing the stimuli to the [...] Read more.
Biomimetic bioreactor systems are increasingly being developed for tissue engineering applications, due to their ability to recreate the native cell/tissue microenvironment. Regarding bone-related diseases and considering the piezoelectric nature of bone, piezoelectric scaffolds electromechanically stimulated by a bioreactor, providing the stimuli to the cells, allows a biomimetic approach and thus, mimicking the required microenvironment for effective growth and differentiation of bone cells. In this work, a bioreactor has been designed and built allowing to magnetically stimulate magnetoelectric scaffolds and therefore provide mechanical and electrical stimuli to the cells through magnetomechanical or magnetoelectrical effects, depending on the piezoelectric nature of the scaffold. While mechanical bioreactors need direct application of the stimuli on the scaffolds, the herein proposed magnetic bioreactors allow for a remote stimulation without direct contact with the material. Thus, the stimuli application (23 mT at a frequency of 0.3 Hz) to cells seeded on the magnetoelectric, leads to an increase in cell viability of almost 30% with respect to cell culture under static conditions. This could be valuable to mimic what occurs in the human body and for application in immobilized patients. Thus, special emphasis has been placed on the control, design and modeling parameters governing the bioreactor as well as its functional mechanism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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10 pages, 2289 KiB  
Communication
A Power-Efficient Radiation Sensor Interface with a Peak-Triggered Sampling Scheme for Mobile Dosimeters
by Hyuntak Jeon, Injun Choi, Soon-Jae Kweon and Minkyu Je
Sensors 2020, 20(11), 3255; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20113255 - 07 Jun 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3338
Abstract
Radiation sensor interfaces for battery-powered mobile dosimeters must consume low power to monitor the amount of radiation exposure over a long period. This paper proposes a power-efficient radiation sensor interface using a peak-triggered sampling scheme. Since the peak of the analog-to-digital converter’s (ADC’s) [...] Read more.
Radiation sensor interfaces for battery-powered mobile dosimeters must consume low power to monitor the amount of radiation exposure over a long period. This paper proposes a power-efficient radiation sensor interface using a peak-triggered sampling scheme. Since the peak of the analog-to-digital converter’s (ADC’s) input represents radiation energy, our ADC only operates around the peak value thanks to the proposed sampling scheme. Although our ADC operates with a high sampling frequency, this proposed sampling scheme reduces the power consumption of the sensor interface because of the reduced operation time of the ADC. Our sensor interface does not have signal distortion caused by a conventional shaper because the interface quantizes the peak value using the high sampling frequency instead of the shaper. When the radiation input occurs once every 10 μs, the power consumption of the ADC with the proposed sampling scheme is only about 21.5% of the ADC’s power consumption when the ADC continuously operates. In this worst case, the fabricated radiation sensor interface in a 0.18-μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process consumes only 1.11 mW. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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21 pages, 5739 KiB  
Article
An 8.8 ps RMS Resolution Time-To-Digital Converter Implemented in a 60 nm FPGA with Real-Time Temperature Correction
by Zhipeng Song, Zhixiang Zhao, Hongsen Yu, Jingwu Yang, Xi Zhang, Tengjie Sui, Jianfeng Xu, Siwei Xie, Qiu Huang and Qiyu Peng
Sensors 2020, 20(8), 2172; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20082172 - 11 Apr 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3998
Abstract
This paper presented a non-uniform multiphase (NUMP) time-to-digital converter (TDC) implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) with real-time automatic temperature compensation. NUMP-TDC is a novel, low-cost, high-performance TDC that has achieved an excellent performance in Altera Cyclone V FPGA. The root mean [...] Read more.
This paper presented a non-uniform multiphase (NUMP) time-to-digital converter (TDC) implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) with real-time automatic temperature compensation. NUMP-TDC is a novel, low-cost, high-performance TDC that has achieved an excellent performance in Altera Cyclone V FPGA. The root mean square (RMS) for the intrinsic timing resolution was 2.3 ps. However, the propagation delays in the delay chain of some FPGAs (for example, the Altera Cyclone 10 LP) vary significantly as the temperature changes. Thus, the timing performances of NUMP-TDCs implemented in those FPGAs are significantly impacted by temperature fluctuations. In this study, a simple method was developed to monitor variations in propagation delays using two registers deployed at both ends of the delay chain and compensate for changes in propagation delay using a look-up table (LUT). When the variations exceeded a certain threshold, the LUT for the delay correction was updated, and a bin-by-bin correction was launched. Using this correction approach, a resolution of 8.8 ps RMS over a wide temperature range (5 °C to 80 °C) had been achieved in a NUMP-TDC implemented in a Cyclone 10 LP FPGA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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13 pages, 5241 KiB  
Article
Silicon Photomultiplier Sensor Interface Based on a Discrete Second Generation Voltage Conveyor
by Vincenzo Stornelli, Leonardo Pantoli, Gianluca Barile, Alfiero Leoni and Emanuele D’Amico
Sensors 2020, 20(7), 2042; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20072042 - 05 Apr 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2988
Abstract
This work presents the design of a discrete second-generation voltage conveyor (VCII) and its capability to be used as electronic interface for silicon photomultipliers. The design addressed here exploits directly at the transistor level, with commercial components, the proposed interface; the obtained performance [...] Read more.
This work presents the design of a discrete second-generation voltage conveyor (VCII) and its capability to be used as electronic interface for silicon photomultipliers. The design addressed here exploits directly at the transistor level, with commercial components, the proposed interface; the obtained performance is valuable considering both the discrete elements and the application. The architecture adopted here realizes a transimpedance amplifier that is also able to drive very high input impedance, as usually requested by photons detection. Schematic and circuital design of the discrete second-generation voltage conveyor is presented and discussed. The complete circuit interface requires a bias current of 20 mA with a dual 5V supply voltage; it has a useful bandwidth of about 106 MHz, and considering also the reduced dimensions, it is a good candidate to be used in portable applications without the need of high-cost dedicated integrated circuits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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18 pages, 5224 KiB  
Article
Design of Reconfigurable Time-to-Digital Converter Based on Cascaded Time Interpolators for Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy
by Sounghun Shin, Yoontae Jung, Soon-Jae Kweon, Eunseok Lee, Jeong-Ho Park, Jinuk Kim, Hyung-Joun Yoo and Minkyu Je
Sensors 2020, 20(7), 1889; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20071889 - 29 Mar 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3257
Abstract
This paper presents a reconfigurable time-to-digital converter (TDC) used to quantize the phase of the impedance in electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The TDC in the EIS system must handle a wide input-time range for analysis in the low-frequency range and have a high [...] Read more.
This paper presents a reconfigurable time-to-digital converter (TDC) used to quantize the phase of the impedance in electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The TDC in the EIS system must handle a wide input-time range for analysis in the low-frequency range and have a high resolution for analysis in the high-frequency range. The proposed TDC adopts a coarse counter to support a wide input-time range and cascaded time interpolators to improve the time resolution in the high-frequency analysis without increasing the counting clock speed. When the same large interpolation factor is adopted, the cascaded time interpolators have shorter measurement time and smaller chip area than a single-stage time interpolator. A reconfigurable time interpolation factor is adopted to maintain the phase resolution with reasonable measurement time. The fabricated TDC has a peak-to-peak phase error of less than 0.72° over the input frequency range from 1 kHz to 512 kHz and the phase error of less than 2.70° when the range is extended to 2.048 MHz, which demonstrates a competitive performance when compared with previously reported designs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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18 pages, 7367 KiB  
Article
Miniaturized 0.13-μm CMOS Front-End Analog for AlN PMUT Arrays
by Iván Zamora, Eyglis Ledesma, Arantxa Uranga and Núria Barniol
Sensors 2020, 20(4), 1205; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20041205 - 22 Feb 2020
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 6461
Abstract
This paper presents an analog front-end transceiver for an ultrasound imaging system based on a high-voltage (HV) transmitter, a low-noise front-end amplifier (RX), and a complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor, aluminum nitride, piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMOS-AlN-PMUT). The system was designed using the 0.13-μm Silterra CMOS process [...] Read more.
This paper presents an analog front-end transceiver for an ultrasound imaging system based on a high-voltage (HV) transmitter, a low-noise front-end amplifier (RX), and a complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor, aluminum nitride, piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMOS-AlN-PMUT). The system was designed using the 0.13-μm Silterra CMOS process and the MEMS-on-CMOS platform, which allowed for the implementation of an AlN PMUT on top of the CMOS-integrated circuit. The HV transmitter drives a column of six 80-μm-square PMUTs excited with 32 V in order to generate enough acoustic pressure at a 2.1-mm axial distance. On the reception side, another six 80-μm-square PMUT columns convert the received echo into an electric charge that is amplified by the receiver front-end amplifier. A comparative analysis between a voltage front-end amplifier (VA) based on capacitive integration and a charge-sensitive front-end amplifier (CSA) is presented. Electrical and acoustic experiments successfully demonstrated the functionality of the designed low-power analog front-end circuitry, which outperformed a state-of-the art front-end application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in terms of power consumption, noise performance, and area. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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15 pages, 3580 KiB  
Article
A Highly Linear CMOS Image Sensor Design Based on an Adaptive Nonlinear Ramp Generator and Fully Differential Pipeline Sampling Quantization with a Double Auto-Zeroing Technique
by Chuangze Li, Benguang Han, Jie He, Zhongjie Guo and Longsheng Wu
Sensors 2020, 20(4), 1046; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20041046 - 14 Feb 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4911
Abstract
For a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor with highly linear, low noise and high frame rate, the nonlinear correction and frame rate improvement techniques are becoming very important. The in-pixel source follower transistor and the integration capacitor on the floating diffusion node cause linearity [...] Read more.
For a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor with highly linear, low noise and high frame rate, the nonlinear correction and frame rate improvement techniques are becoming very important. The in-pixel source follower transistor and the integration capacitor on the floating diffusion node cause linearity degradation. In order to address this problem, this paper proposes an adaptive nonlinear ramp generator circuit based on dummy pixels used in single-slope analog-to-digital converter topology for a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. In the proposed approach, the traditional linear ramp generator circuit is replaced with the new proposed adaptive nonlinear ramp generator circuit that can mitigate the nonlinearity of the pixel unit circuit, especially the gain nonlinearity of the source follower transistor and the integration capacitor nonlinearity of the floating diffusion node. Moreover, in order to enhance the frame rate and address the issue of high column fixed pattern noise, a new readout scheme of fully differential pipeline sampling quantization with a double auto-zeroing technique is proposed. Compared with the conventional readout structure without a fully differential pipeline sampling quantization technique and double auto-zeroing technique, the proposed readout scheme cannot only enhance the frame rate but can also improve the consistency of the offset and delay information of different column comparators and significantly reduce the column fixed pattern noise. The proposed techniques are simulated and verified with a prototype chip fabricated using typical 180 nm CMOS process technology. The obtained measurement results demonstrate that the overall nonlinearity of the CMOS image sensor is reduced from 1.03% to 0.047%, the efficiency of the comparator is improved from 85.3% to 100%, and the column fixed pattern noise is reduced from 0.43% to 0.019%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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Other

Jump to: Editorial, Research

11 pages, 1631 KiB  
Letter
Component Analysis of Gas Mixture Based on One-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network
by Canjian Zhan, Jiafeng He, Mingjin Pan and Dehan Luo
Sensors 2021, 21(2), 347; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21020347 - 06 Jan 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2119
Abstract
Indoor harmful gases are a considerable threat to the health of residents. In order to improve the accuracy of indoor harmful gas component identification, we propose an indoor toxic gas component analysis method that is based on the combination of bionic olfactory and [...] Read more.
Indoor harmful gases are a considerable threat to the health of residents. In order to improve the accuracy of indoor harmful gas component identification, we propose an indoor toxic gas component analysis method that is based on the combination of bionic olfactory and convolutional neural network. This method uses the convolutional neural network’s ability to extract nonlinear features and identify each component of bionic oflactory respense signal. A comparison with the results of other methods verifies the improvement of recognition rate while with the same level of time cost, which proved the effectiveness of the proposed model. The experimental results showed that the recognition rate of different types and concentrations of harmful gas components reached 90.96% and it solved the problem of mutual interference between gases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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16 pages, 7949 KiB  
Letter
0.5 V Fifth-Order Butterworth Low-Pass Filter Using Multiple-Input OTA for ECG Applications
by Montree Kumngern, Nattharinee Aupithak, Fabian Khateb and Tomasz Kulej
Sensors 2020, 20(24), 7343; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20247343 - 21 Dec 2020
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3753
Abstract
This paper presents a 0.5 V fifth-order Butterworth low-pass filter based on multiple-input operational transconductance amplifiers (OTA). The filter is designed for electrocardiogram (ECG) acquisition systems and operates in the subthreshold region with nano-watt power consumption. The used multiple-input technique simplifies the overall [...] Read more.
This paper presents a 0.5 V fifth-order Butterworth low-pass filter based on multiple-input operational transconductance amplifiers (OTA). The filter is designed for electrocardiogram (ECG) acquisition systems and operates in the subthreshold region with nano-watt power consumption. The used multiple-input technique simplifies the overall structure of the OTA and reduces the number of active elements needed to realize the filter. The filter was designed and simulated in the Cadence environment using a 0.18 µm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) process from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Simulation results show that the filter has a bandwidth of 250 Hz, a power consumption of 34.65 nW, a dynamic range of 63.24 dB, attaining a figure-of-merit of 0.0191 pJ. The corner (process, voltage, temperature: PVT) and Monte Carlo (MC) analyses are included to prove the robustness of the filter. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronics for Sensors)
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