Cover Page

SMART SENSOR SYSTEMS: EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS

 

Edited by

Gerard Meijer

Delft University of Technology and SensArt, The Netherlands

 

Michiel Pertijs

Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

 

Kofi Makinwa

Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

 

 

 

 

 

Wiley Logo

About the Editors

Gerard Meijer

Gerard Meijer received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, in 1972 and 1982, respectively. Since 1972, he has been a member of the research and teaching staff of Delft University of Technology, and since 2001, an Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor. His major interests are in the field of Analog Electronics and Electronic Instrumentation. In 1984, and on a part-time basis from 1985–1987, he was seconded to Delft Instruments Company, Delft, The Netherlands, where he was involved in the development of industrial level gauges and temperature transducers. In 1996 he co-founded the company SENSART, where he is a consultant for the design and development of sensor systems. In 1999 the Dutch Foundation of Technical Sciences STW awarded Meijer with the honorary title of Simon Stevin Meester. Meijer is chairman of the National STW Platform on Sensor Technology.

Michiel Pertijs

Michiel Pertijs received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering (both cum laude) from Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, in 2000 and 2005, respectively. From 2005 to 2008, he was with National Semiconductor, Delft, where he designed precision operational amplifiers and instrumentation amplifiers. From 2008 to 2009, he was a Senior Researcher with imec / Holst Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. In 2009, he joined the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory of Delft University of Technology, where he is now an Associate Professor. He heads a research group working on integrated circuits for medical ultrasound and energy-efficient smart sensors. Dr. Pertijs is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC) and a member of the technical program committees of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC), and the IEEE Sensors Conference. He received the ISSCC 2005 Jack Kilby Award for Outstanding Student Paper, the JSSC 2005 Best Paper Award, and the 2006 Simon Stevin Gezel Award from the Dutch Technology Foundation STW.

Kofi Makinwa

Kofi Makinwa received the B.Sc. (First class honors) and M.Sc. degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria in 1985 and 1988 respectively. In 1989, he received the M.E.E. degree (cum laude) from the Philips International Institute, Eindhoven, The Netherlands and in 2004, the Ph.D. degree from Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. From 1989 to 1999, he was a Research Scientist with Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, where he worked on interactive displays and on optical and magnetic recording systems. In 1989 he joined the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory of Delft University of Technology, where he is currently an Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor and head of the laboratory. His main interests are in the design of precision analog circuitry, smart sensors and sensor interfaces.

Dr. Makinwa is on the technical program committees of the European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC) and the Advances in Analog Circuit Design (AACD) workshop. He was on the Program Committee of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) from 2006 to 2012. He has also been a three-time guest editor of the Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC) and a two-term distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society. He is a co-recipient of the 2005 Simon Stevin Gezel Award from the Dutch Technology Foundation, as well as of several best paper awards: from the JSSC (2005, 2011), the ISSCC (2005, 2008, 2011) and the ESSCIRC (2006, 2009), among others. In 2013, at the 60th anniversary of ISSCC, he was recognized as one of its top ten contributors. He is an IEEE fellow, an alumnus of the Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and an elected member of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society AdCom, the society's governing board.

List of Contributors

  1. Pedram Afshar, Medtronic Neuromodulation, Minneapolis, USA
  2. Bernhard Boser, Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, University of California, Berkeley, USA
  3. Zu-Yao Chang, Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
  4. Peng Cong, Medtronic Neuromodulation, Minneapolis, USA
  5. Tim Denison, Medtronic Neuromodulation, Minneapolis, USA
  6. Chinwuba Ezekwe, Robert Bosch, Palo Alto, California, USA
  7. Heidari Ali, Guilan University, Rasht, Iran
  8. Johan Huijsing, Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
  9. Blagoy Iliev, Martil Instruments, Heiloo,The Netherlands
  10. Xiujun Li, Exalon, Delft, The Netherlands and Sensytech, Delft, The Netherlands
  11. Kofi Makinwa, Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
  12. Gerard Meijer, Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, Delft University of Technology and SensArt, Delft, The Netherlands
  13. Stoyan Nihtianov, Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
  14. Jos Oudenhoven, imec/Holst Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
  15. Michiel Pertijs, Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
  16. Gheorghe Pop, Martil Instruments, Heiloo, The Netherlands
  17. Valer Pop, imec/Holst Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
  18. Michael Renaud, imec/Holst Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
  19. Zhichao Tan, Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
  20. Albert Theuwissen, Harvest Imaging, Bree, Belgium and Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
  21. Roland Thewes, Technische Universität Berlin (Berlin Institute of Technology), Berlin, Germany
  22. Hubregt Visser, imec/Holst Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
  23. Ruud Vullers, imec/Holst Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
  24. Ziyang Wang, imec/Holst Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Preface

This book is intended as a reference for designers and users of sensors and sensor systems, and as a source of inspiration and a trigger for new ideas. For a major part, it is based on material used in the multidisciplinary “Smart Sensor Systems” course, which has been held annually at Delft University of Technology since 1995. The goals of this course are to present the basic principles of smart sensor systems to a broad, multidisciplinary audience, to develop a common language and scientific background to discuss the challenges associated with the design of such systems, and to facilitate mutual cooperation. In this way, we hope to contribute to the continuous expansion of the community of people advancing the exciting field of smart sensor systems.

As diverse and widespread as smart sensors may be today, research and development in this field is far from complete. It is driven by the continuous demand for lower cost, size and power consumption, and for higher performance and greater reliability. Moreover, new sensing principles and technologies are continuously emerging, and so significant effort is required to bring them to maturity. Often, this process involves more than just improving the performance of the transducer concerned. The system around the transducer plays an equally important, if not a more important, role. This system includes the electronics that interface with the transducer, the package that protects the transducer from the environment, and the calibration procedure that ensures that a certain performance specification is met.

This book focuses on these important system aspects, and, in particular, on the design of smart sensor systems, in which sensors and electronics are combined in a single package or even on a single chip to provide improved functionality, performance and reliability. In a previous book entitled “Smart Sensor Systems,” the basics of such systems were covered. This book complements this prior publication by covering a number of emerging sensing technologies and applications, as well as discussing, in more detail, the system aspects of smart sensor design.

The book opens by discussing the exciting possibilities afforded by the combination of sensors and electronics: the accurate processing of small sensor signals (Chapter 1), the adoption of self-calibration techniques (2), and the integration of precision instrumentation amplifiers (3). This is followed by a discussion of a number of sensor systems in which system aspects play a key role: sensing of physical and chemical parameters by means of impedance measurement (4); low-power angular-rate sensing using feedback and background-calibration techniques (5); sensor systems for the detection of biomolecules, such as DNA (6); optical sensor systems-on-a-chip in the form of CMOS image sensors (7); and smart sensors capable of interfacing with the human nervous system (8). Finally, the book also describes emerging technologies for the generation and storage of energy, since these are the key to realizing truly autonomous sensor systems (9).

During the course of writing this text, we have been assisted by many people. We gratefully acknowledge the feedback and suggestions provided by our reviewers: Reinoud Wolffenbuttel of Delft University of Technology, Michael Kraft of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems, Michiel Vellekoop of the University of Bremen, Jan Bosiers of Teledyne DALSA, Firat Yazicioglu of imec, and the authors who also acted as reviewers. At our publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., we would like to acknowledge the Project Editors Richard Davies, Liz Wingett, and Laura Bell, for their support, encouragement and help in arranging agreements as well as to Production Editor Genna Manaog and Sangeetha Parthasarathy of Laserwords for help throughout the production of this book. Furthermore, we want to express our gratitude to the universities, research institutes and companies who permitted the use of figures and illustrations to make this book attractive for our readers. Finally, we would like to thank our spouses, Rumiana, Hannah and Abi, for their love and support.

Gerard Meijer, Michiel Pertijs and Kofi Makinwa
Delft, The Netherlands