A Temperature – and Supply- Variation Robust 2nd-Order Sigma-Delta Modulation for Capacitive Sensing

Abstract

In this paper, I proposed a temperature- and supply variation robust 2nd-order sigma-delta modulation circuit for capacitive sensing. Capacitive sensing by conventional circuits is basically supply sensitive. Capacitance is sensed by reading the charge that is equal to the difference between the capacitance value of the capacitor and the capacitor to be sensed. In this method, the amount of charge is dependent on the supply, so it is insensitive to supply variation. In this paper, the capacitance is read by using the time determined by the discharge characteristics when a capacitor called T0V meets the resistance component. The charge accumulated in the capacitor is certainly influenced by the supply value, but capacitive sensing is performed using the characteristic that the time taken to discharge the charge to zero is always constant. In the process, VCO (Voltage-Controlled-Oscillator) based ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) was used to increase the resolution by utilizing the noise shaping effect of sigma-delta ADC. In the process, the resistor is switched to a switched capacitor to obtain robust characteristics against temperature variations. Unlike resistance whose values change with temperature, capacitance are relatively robust to temperature effects. By using the characteristics, a circuit having robust characteristics in temperature variation as well as robust in supply variation.