Design of a Novel Self-Test-on-Chip Interface ASIC for Capacitive Accelerometers
Xiangyu Li, Pengjun Wang, Gang Li, Yuejun Zhang
Abstract
High-precision miniaturized micromechanical accelerometers are used extensively in the civilian and military fields. A novel self-test-on-chip method and time-multiplexing feedback method for capacitive accelerometers were proposed in this work. The self-test-on-chip circuit can simulate an acceleration signal to test the harmonic distortion without a high-precision shaker table. Using digital timing control, the time-multiplexing feedback can reduce the coupling between the feedback signal and the detection signal. In addition, a low-noise charge sensing and sigma-delta modulator were designed for a high-precision digital output. The interfaced circuit with fully differential topology was fabricated in a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.35 \mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> standard complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. The integrated accelerometers can achieve a power consumption of 7 mW from a 5 V supply at a sampling frequency of 256 kHz, a noise floor of −140 dBV below 400 Hz. The equivalent input noise voltage density is 250nV/ <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\surd $ </tex-math></inline-formula> Hz, corresponding to a reference voltage of 2.5V. It can achieve an equivalent noise acceleration of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.14 \mu \text{g}\surd $ </tex-math></inline-formula> Hz and a bias instability of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$9 \mu \text{g}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at a bandwidth of 400 Hz, a nonlinearity of 0.13% within ±1 g.