Analog Circuits and Signal Processing

Series Editors Mohammed Ismail Mohamad Sawan

For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/7381

Rong Wu Johan H. Huijsing Ko A. A. Makinwa

Precision Instrumentation Ampliers and Read-Out Integrated Circuits

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Rong Wu e-mail: rongwu.grace@gmail.com Johan H. Huijsing e-mail: j.h.huijsing@tudelft.nl

Ko A. A. Makinwa e-mail: k.a.a.makinwa@tudelft.nl

ISBN 978-1-4614-3730-7 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-3731-4

ISBN 978-1-4614-3731-4

(eBook)

Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2012940238 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microlms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publishers location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specic statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

To my parents and Zhiyu

Preface

Sensors are ubiquitous in our lives and indispensable in many applications, e.g., process control, weighing scales, environmental monitoring, and temperature measurement. They can be found in wafer steppers, weighing scales, mobile phones and automobiles, etc. While these sensors convert the physical signals into electrical domain, their output voltage are small, in the millivolt-level, such as thermocouples and bridge transducers (thermistor bridges, Hall sensors and load cells). Therefore, they need ampliers to boost such signals to levels compatible with the input ranges of typical Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs). To achieve sufcient signal-to-noise ratio, the input referred error of the amplier should be reduced to a low enough level that means the amplier must have low thermal and 1/f noise, high accuracy, and low drift. Achieving all these is quite challenging in todays mainstream CMOS technology whose inherent precision is limited by 1/f noise, component mismatch, gain error, and drift. A further challenge is to achieve good power efciency since many sensor systems are battery-powered. This is also essential for precision temperature measurement to restrict local selfheating errors. This book describes the use of power-efcient techniques to mitigate low frequency errors, resulting in interface electronics with high accuracy, low noise, and low drift. Since this book is mainly about techniques for eliminating low frequency errors, it describes the nature of these errors and the associated dynamic offset cancelation techniques used to mitigate them. It then shows how these techniques can be applied to operational ampliers. Then these techniques are extended to current-feedback instrumentation ampliers (CFIAs) which are well suited for bridge readout. Since the main disadvantage of CFIAs is their limited gain accuracy, the available techniques to improve this are discussed, such as resistordegeneration, dynamic element matching, etc. The advantages and disadvantages of each of these techniques are analyzed. Later, it presents the architecture design and implementation of a CFIA, in which a new technique (offset reduction loop) is proposed to suppress the chopper

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ripple without causing noise folding. An improved version CFIA of the rst CFIA is described, which maintains the noise performance of the rst design and also achieves high gain accuracy without trimming. This is obtained by dynamic element matching and another proposed new technique (gain error reduction loop). The basic architecture of the rst CFIA is then combined with an ADC to build a readout IC. The system-level design of the readout IC together with implementation details and measurement results are presented. The CFIA and the ADC collaborate at system level to achieve an optimum performance. Measurement results show that the realized readout IC achieves state-of-the-art offset and drift performance.

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Overview of Read-Out Electronics for Sensors 1.3 Instrumentation Amplifier Topologies . . . . . . 1.3.1 Three-Opamp Topology . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.2 Switched-Capacitor Topology. . . . . . . 1.3.3 Capacitively-Coupled Topology . . . . . 1.3.4 Current-Mode Topology. . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.5 Current-Feedback Topology . . . . . . . . 1.4 Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier. . 1.5 Read-Out ICs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6 Targeted Sensor Applications and Challenges . 1.7 Organization of the Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dynamic Offset Cancellation Techniques for Operational Ampliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Low Frequency Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 1/f Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.3 Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Dynamic Offset Cancellation Techniques . . . 2.3.1 Auto-Zeroing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.2 Chopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Charge Injection Compensation Techniques in Auto-Zeroed and Chopper Amplifiers. . . . 2.4.1 Compensation Techniques for Charge

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Charge Injection and Clock Feed-Through in Chopper Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.3 Chopper Charge Injection Suppression Techniques . 2.4.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 Dynamic Offset Compensated Operational Amplifiers . . . . 2.5.1 Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.2 Ping-Pong Operational Amplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.3 Chopper-CDS Operational Amplifier . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.4 Offset-Stabilized Operational Amplifiers . . . . . . . . 2.5.5 Chopper Offset-Stabilized Operational Amplifiers. . 2.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

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Current-Feedback Instrumentation Ampliers and Gain Accuracy Improvement Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.1 Indirect Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier . . . 3.1.2 Direct Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier . . . . 3.2 Precision Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifiers . . . . . . . 3.2.1 Chopper-Stabilized Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 Ping-Pong Auto-Zeroed Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Gain Accuracy Improvement Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.1 Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier with Resistor-Degenerated Input Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.2 Chopper-Stabilized Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier with Auto-Gain Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.3 Ping-Pong-Pang Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Chopper Instrumentation Amplier with Offset Reduction Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Amplifier Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Amplifier Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Offset Reduction Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 Basic Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Transfer Function Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 Other Sources of Chopper Ripple . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1 Cascode Buffer Isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.2 Chopper Ripple from the Intermediate Stage

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4.5

Applying ORL to General Purpose Instrumentation Amplifiers and Operational Amplifiers. . . . . . . . . . 4.6 Circuit Implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.1 The Input Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.2 The Intermediate and Output Stages . . . . . . 4.6.3 The Cascode Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.4 Constant-Gm Bias Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.5 Chopper Clock Design and Layout . . . . . . . 4.7 Measurement Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8 Benchmark and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

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A Chopper Instrumentation Amplier with Gain Error Reduction Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Dynamic Element Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Analog Gain Error Reduction Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 Basic Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 Qualitative Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.3 Quantitative Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 Digitally-Assisted Gain Error Reduction Loop . . . . . . . . . 5.5 Comparison Between ORL and GERL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.6 The Effects of Chopping, DEM and GERL on CFIA Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.7 Circuit Implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.7.1 Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier with Analog Gain Error Reduction Loop . . . . . . . . 5.7.2 Current-Feedback Instrumentation Amplifier with Digitally-Assisted Gain Error Reduction Loop. 5.8 Measurement Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8.1 Noise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8.2 Output Ripple Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8.3 INL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8.4 Gain Accuracy and Gain Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8.5 Settling Behavior of Analog GERL and Digitally-Assisted GERL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.9 Benchmark and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Read-Out Integrated Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 ADC Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Architecture Design of the ADC . . . . . . . . 6.2.1 Modulator Topology . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.2 Non-Idealities in the DR Modulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Gain Accuracy Improvement Techniques in the Read-Out IC . 6.3.1 Dynamic Element Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.2 Digitally-Assisted Gain Error Correction Scheme . . . . 6.4 Offset and 1/f Noise Suppression Techniques in the Read-Out IC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.1 Previous Approach (Multi-Stage Chopping and System-Level Chopping) . 6.4.2 Proposed Approach (Input-Stage Chopping Combined with System-Level Chopping) . . . . . . . . . . 6.5 Error Correction Techniques Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6 Circuit Implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6.1 CFIA Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6.2 ADC Implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7 Measurement Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.8 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 Original Contributions . . . . . . . 7.2 Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 Main Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.6 Other Applications of this Work 7.7 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .