Electronic Sensor Circuits

In our information age, the probing of data is the elementary source for understanding the world around us. In most technical systems, these measurements are done by electronic systems. This book teaches the fundamentals of measurements, the technology of sensors, and the fundamentals of electronic circuits. The measurement system is approached as a chain to convert a physical quantity via an electronic sensor setup into a digital bus signal. Extra focus is on the management of measurement errors, circuit theory and the sensor as an electronic transducer.

This book describes novel circuit and system solutions for the design of analog electronic interfaces for resistive, capacitive and temperature sensors, also showing a wide variation range, with the intent to give a complete overview of the first analog front-ends. After a description of the main kinds of sensors and their definitions, the book presents novel electronic circuits, most of which do not require any initial calibration, also designed with analog microelectronic techniques, at transistor level in a standard CMOS integrated technology.

This book investigates the possible circuit solutions to overcome the temperature and supply voltage-sensitivity of fully-integrated time references for ultra-low-power communication in wireless sensor networks. The authors provide an elaborate theoretical introduction and literature study to enable full understanding of the design challenges and shortcomings of current oscillator implementations. Furthermore, a closer look to the short-term as well as the long-term frequency stability of integrated oscillators is taken. Next, a design strategy is developed and applied to 5 different oscillator topologies and 1 sensor interface. All 6 implementations are subject to an elaborate study of frequency stability, phase noise and power consumption. In the final chapter all blocks are compared to the state of the art.