Abstract: Barometric pressure sensor are indispensable features in wearable consumer devices. Modern designs can sense absolute height difference of less than 8.5cm (1Pa), improving indoor navigation significantly and enabling new applications such as activity tracking and crash detection. In this talk, we will take a deep dive into the design challenges of readout chains for capacitive pressure sensors. The main driving requirements are noise and power. To reach the demanding targets for wearable devices, heavy duty cycling and advanced analog front-end design is needed. But these are not the only challenges. Since pressure sensors must be exposed to the atmosphere, they are often located in the outer cases of smartphones, and have long connections to the main PCB. This leads to high demands on PSRR and RF immunity. Both topics will be discussed, as well as several methods to improve the robustness of pressure sensor readout chains.
Bio: Tim Piessens is a professor at the MICAS laboratories of KU Leuven. Before returning to KULeuven, Tim was one of the co-founders of ICsense, a mixed-signal ASIC design house. For 20 years, he was CTO, responsible for the technical content of all projects. Before starting ICsense, he was research assistant at ESAT-MICAS, receiving a PhD from KU Leuven in 2003. His research focuses on ultra low power, high accuracy sensor interfaces and high voltage design for electrical vehicles. He is a member of the ESSERC Steering Committee, the IEEE-SSCS Adcom and active in the TPC of ESSERC. From 2014 till 2021, Tim served as a member of the ISSCC and ISSCC EU-TPC chair in 2021. Tim is an IEEE SSCS Distinguished Lecturer.
Register here: https://ieee.webex.com/weblink/register/r5a2e3ab71a1ea604abe39a94ac6d78e6