Sensors and Actuators A, 34 ( 1992) 77-83 77

Smart CMOS capacitive pressure transducer with on-chip

calibration capability*

F V Schnatz, U Schoneberg** and W Brockherde

Fraunlmfer Institute of Microelectronic Circuit and Systems, Fmkenstrasse 61, 4100 Duishurg I (Germany)

P Kopystynski, T Mehlhorn and F Obermeier

Technical Unmersay of Berlin, Mroopenpheru Technology, Grime.-Meyer-AIIee 65, 1000 Berlin 65 (Germany)

H Benzel
Umcersrtv of Stuttgart, Instrmte for Network and Systems Theory, Pfaffenwuhlrng 47, 7000 Smtrgart (Germany)

(Received January 7. 1992, accepted February 21, 1992)

Abstract
A capacitive pressure sensor with CMOS switched-capacitor circuitry for on-chip signal conditioning is introduced
It features differential generation and treatment of pressure-induced capacitance changes to suppress various
parasitic effects A digital calibration capability is provided for sensitivity adjustment and for temperature
compensation The fabrication of the transducer is largely congruent with a standard n-well CMOS process The
paper explains the function of the circuitry and its implications for the sensor design and presents experimental
results obtained in testing the various components of the transducer as well as the overall sensor system

Introduction vb v

Although several capacitive pressure sensors 1P

I n ~`
with integrated signal conditioning have been pub- -4+'r
3 C."Mit ) cosumo
lished during recent years, most solutions suffer v
from a lack of dedicated readout circuitry and r
none of them features on-chip calibration We
shall present here an integration concept based on
the switched capacitor (SC) technique that has Voltage Reference O fse[ neln

proved its suitability in analog CMOS design dur- V ,-0(1a(T-TS ))

ing the last decade and is fully compatible with

digital CMOS In addition to capacitance/voltage
conversion and amplification, our solution in-
cludes an accurate band-gap voltage reference and
allows electronic calibration
Circuit design
Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the sensor
and accompanying circuits The fixed band-gap
"Paper presented at the 6th International Conference on Solid-
State Sensors and Actuators (Transducers '91), San Francisco, CA,
USA, June 24-28, 1991
"Present address SICAN GmbH, 3000 Hannover, Germany
Fig I Block diagram of sensor and circuits
reference voltage generated by four cascaded bipo-
lar transistors [ l] is fed into an SC amplifier where
change of the sensor capacitance due to the applied
pressure varies the gain factor for this voltage [2],
thus effecting capacitance to voltage conversion
Figure 2 shows a detailed schematic of the am-
plifier Two major advantages of our concept can
be seen First, we have placed the sensor in the
feedback loop of the first amplifier [3] Using a
sensor with a bossed diaphragm (Fig 4), this leads
to a very accurate linearization A second advan-
tage of our concept is the differential architecture

0924-4247192/55 00 © 1992 - Elsevier Sequoia All rights reserved



78

Fig 2 Switched-capacitor circuit for capaotive readout

of the readout electronics This makes the am- Equations (2) and (1) provide the voltage
plifier insensitive to all interference and the tem-
perature dependence of leakage currents by V2 C,a(VBCl-Vuv2)(2Ci-11+Vs (3)
suppressing such signals with the common-mode
rejection ratio Contrary to this, the sensor signal The value of V2 is equal to the output voltage
is generated as a differential one by splitting the VOUT, because the third circuit stage, a smoothing
actual sensor (C5 „ C52 ) and the reference element low-pass filter, only bandlimits the output signal
(CRI , CR2 ) each into two parts and using an ap- It is assumed that the sensor behaves like a plate
propriate clocking scheme In this way the sensor capacitor Then the sensor and reference capaci-
signal can be separated from other effects, which is tances are
important for an integrated solution because of Age
the large parasitic capacitances between sensor, Cs i = (4)
xo - x(P)
reference element and substrate [3] A detailed
circuit description follows and
The first circuit stage amplifies the voltage ARe (5)
difference Vu, - VBO2 provided by the band-gap CRi =
x„
reference circuit The gain factor is determined by
the ratio of reference capacitor to sensing capaci- x(p) describes the reduction of the plate distance
tor The output voltage V, of the first stage is due to the applied pressure The ratio CR ,/Cs , is
calculated with designed to be 112 without pressure and with eqns
(4) and (5) the voltage VouT is
CR,
V, = 2(VBC, - VBC2) (1) Cs x (p)
CS, Voum `- (VBC1 - V ,) + VS (6)
Ca xu
In the second circuit stage the difference between
As eqn (6) shows, the voltage VouT for zero
the voltage V, and the voltage difference
pressure equals Vs The linear relation between the
VBc , - VBa2 is amplified by the factor C, ,(C,
voltage VouT and the pressure-influenced plate
(C3s = C„ CC = C,) A constant voltage VS is
distance x(p) is described To adjust the sensor
added to the signal voltage to set the zero-pressure
sensitivity, the ratio C3 /C, can be chosen by set-
value The output voltage V 2 of the second stage is
ting a number of switches in a programmable
calculated with
capacitor array
V2= --e,3 [ V - (Veci - Vg2))+Vs (2)
Figure 3 shows the band-gap reference circuit
The temperature calibration is made possible by a


79

Fig 3 Band-gap reference circuit

resistor chain By choosing one of the switches via
the three-bit coder, the linearly tempeiature-de-
pendent part of the reference voltage can be ad-
justed The linear temperature coefficient of the
sensitivity can be eliminated if the temperature
coefficient of the reference voltage is adjusted
to the reciprocal value of the coefficient of the
sensitivity
ting both sensing and reference capacitors into two
each, connected in series by the metallization on
the glass Another measure to simplify the assem-
bly of the sensor is the use of a second glass plate
on the bottom side, which renders airtight
feedthroughs from the air-gap capacitors to the
on-chip circuitry unnecessary Except for adding
micromachining and anodic bonding at the end,

Sensor design

The sensor element (Fig 4) is formed by a

micromachined square silicon diaphragm with a
centre boss and two Pyrex glass chips attached to
both sides of the silicon chip by means of anodic
bonding The sensing capacitors are located above
the centre boss of the diaphragm and the reference
capacitors are outside the pressure-sensitive area
The design of the sensor avoids the need for
contacting the electrodes on the glass cap by split-

Reference Capac tars Sensing Capacitors

N \ Sd con
VA cult

Fig 4 Schematic cross section of the sensor Fig 5 Photograph of the sensor chip


80

the fabrication of the sensor requires no alteration
of a standard CMOS process sequence Circuit
and sensor have been integrated in 3 pin CMOS
n-well technology
A photograph of the chip, which, in addition to
sensor part and the circuits described above, also
contains a clock generator and a third-order
smoothing low-pass filter at the signal output, is
shown in Fig 5 Its size is 8 4 mm x 6 2 mm
Experimental results
The smart sensor chip (Fig 5), containing the
sensor and all circuitry described in the preceding
Sections, was tested in parts and in total
Testing of the amplifier
After leaving the standard CMOS process, the
electronic circuitry is ready to operate, but the
second electrodes of sensor and reference capacitor
are still missing To test the circuit at this stage,
the sensor and reference capacitors were substi-
tuted by external ones with a ratio of 1/3 This
capacitor ratio, in combination with a pro-
grammed gain of three of the second stage, leads
Testing of the band-gap reference circuit
Figure 7 shows the output voltage of the pro-
grammable band-gap reference for the eight differ-
ent linear temperature coefficients Depending on
the switch setting, the temperature coefficient of
the reference voltage varies between approximately
zero and -0016%/K This operating range was
chosen for the temperature compensation, because
a small positive temperature coefficient of sensitiv-
ity is to be expected for a capacitive pressure
sensor in the medium-pressure range [4]
Testing of the sensor
The change of the inverse sensor capacitance of
a sensing capacitor versus pressure is depicted in
Fig 8 The measured data confirm the lineariza-
tion by means of a centre boss to be effective and
the residual pressure sensitivity of the reference
50
Switch
Setting
0
v
7
'46-

to the overall voltage-transfer function 7a 7

70 44
VOUT=(Usa1 - Ve 3 2)+Vs (7) _

The measurement yielded a linear dependence,

shown in Fig 6 Its maximum deviation from an
ideal slope is 0 3% 0 50 100 150
Temperature [ °cl
Fig 7 Measured output voltage of the programmable band-gap
reference vs temperature
6 00

0 1398

~013H4 -
u
u
C
m
uC
m013
0

0 00 1 X00 2 00 3 0X 0 00 0 1390
00 02 04 06 08 10
excitation voltage VBG1 - VBG2 Pressure [bar]

Fig 6 Voltage transfer function of the readout electronics Fig 8 Charactenstic of the pressure-sensitive capacitor


81

capacitors to be negligible ( < 0 15% changes at the 50

rated pressure) A matching tolerance of better
than 1% was achieved for the desired ratio of TCO =42 ppm/K it-xs•r
a0
reference to sensing capacitor The temperature 0
rz
behaviour of the sensing capacitor was measured in m
the temperature range -35 to + 125 °C and is ~- 1 0

depicted in Figs 11 and 12 The temperature un

dependency is mainly due to the mismatch between 0
the temperature coefficients of silicon and Pyrex 0
oeeanOffset of the Sensing
Capacitor normalized
Testing of the entire transducer on C(T=25 °C) I r .o
After all of the three major components, i e ,
readout amplifier, band-gap voltage reference and -50
0-20 0 20 40 60 50 100120140
air-gap capacitors, were proven to function cor- Temperature [ °C]
rectly, the entire transducer had to be tested Pres-
Fig I 1 Temperature behaviour of the offset of the sensing capacitor
sure in the range 0 to 30 kPa was applied to the

B0 i

agaap T- 2S°C
50- 11
T

u 40- X10

N
M
01 20-
C
0 m
7 m 0a go,-n TCS I trs •e = 90 ppm / K
20
annpoSensitlvity of the Sensing
Capacitor normalized on
L> 07 T=25 C
i0
0
06
00
200 we
40-20 0 20' 40'e0' aQ '1do'120'140
00 100 Temperature [°c]
Pressure [kPa]
Fig 12 Temperature behaviour of the sensitivity of the sensing
Fig 9 Measurement of the entire transducer output voltage vs capacitor
applied pressure

rn 00-
tte

T 01-

L
m
m -0 1
C

C wg0pwlthovt Compen .etton

4aau with Caapanaetion
0 -0S~
z 0 aeaaitit' . viormalised
on T = 25 ° C

-ho-iio 6 •2o'€0'ab'S0 1d0'i 0'140

-05 Temperature [ °C]
00 100 200 300
Pressure [kPa]
Fig 13 Temperature behaviour of the sensitivity with and without
Fig 10 Overall linearity error compensation provided by the hand-gap voltage sounw
82
monolithically integrated sensor while the output
voltage was measured
As shown in Fig 9, the output voltage increases
linearly from the zero-pressure value with rising
pressure The error of the linearization is below
0 4% (Fig 10) The effect of the temperature com-
pensation is depicted in Fig 13 By changing the
adjustment range in the band-gap reference circuit,
the temperature dependence can be reduced fur-
ther With the current version of the band-gap
circuit a reduction of the average temperature
coefficient from 0 13%/K to 0 09"/o/K was
achieved
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge H Vogt
and G Pollak-Diener for fabrication of the
devices This work was funded by the German
Federal Ministry of Research and Technology
(BMFT)
References
I B K Ahu)a, P R Gray, W M Baxter and 0 T Uehara, A
programmable CMOS dual channel interface processor for
telecommunications applications, IEEE J Solui-State Circuits.. SC-
19 (1984) 892-899
2 Li Schoneberg, B J Hosticka and F V Schnatz, A CMOS
readout amplifier for instrumentation applications, IEEE J Solid-
State Circuits SC-26 (1991) 1077 1080
3 B Pucrs, E Pceters, A van do Bosschc and W Sanscn, A
capacitive pressure sensor with low impedance output and active
suppression of parasitic effects, Sensors and Actuators A21-A23
(1990) ills 114
4 H Kmsma A Lehto and J Lahdenpera, A new family of silicon
capacitive pressure sensors, Proe Sensor 88, ,Yurnberg FRG, May
3-5, 1988, pp 49-494
Biographies
Frank V Schnalz was born in Meets, West
Germany, on February 4, 1958 He received the
Dipl -Ing degree in electrical engineering from
the University of Duisberg, Germany, in April
1989 Subsequently he joined the Fraunhofer
Institute of Microelectronic Circuits and Sys-
tems, Duisburg, Germany He is working in the
field of analog CMOS circuits for sensor applica-
tions
Uwe Schoneberg was born in Lubecke, West
Germany, on March 26, 1959 He received the Dipl -
Ing degree in electrical engineering from the Uni-
versity of Dortmund, Germany, in November 1985
In 1986 he joined the Fraunhofer Institute of Micro-
electronic Circuits and Systems, Duisburg, Ger-
many, where he was engaged in analog CMOS cir-
cuits for sensor applications and pursued his Ph D
studies at the University of Duisburg Since April
1991 he has been with SICAN GmbH, Hannover,
Germany, where he deals with analog circuit design
Werner Brockherde was born m Gescher. West
Germany, on May 10, 1956 He received the DipI -
lug degree in electrical engineering from the Uni-
versity of Dortmund, Germany, in 1982 From 1982
to 1984 he was with the Lehrstuhl Bauelemente,
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
Dortmund, working in the field of analog and digital
MOS integrated circuit design In 1985 he joined the
Fraunhofer Institute of Microelectronic Circuits
and Systems, Duisburg, Germany, where he heads
a research group in analog integrated circuit design
His scientific interests are in the area of circuit
techniques for analog and digital signal processing,
medical electronics and analog CAD
P Kopystynski received his B S and M S de-
grees in electrical engineering from the University
of Illinois and from the Technical University of
Munich in 1983 and 1985, respectively He started
working on silicon sensors at the Fraunhofer Soci-
ety and in 1989 joined the Technical University of
Berlin, from which he received his PhD in 1991
His current work is focused on the development of
smart sensors
T Mehlhorn received his M S degree from the
Technical University of Berlin, Germany, in 1989
In the same year he joined the Institute of Micrope-
ripheric Technology of the Technical University of
Berlin He is at present working towards a Ph D
degree
E Obermeier received his M S and Ph D de-
grees from the Technical University of Munich,
Germany In 1977 he joined the Fraunhofer So-
ciety, where he worked on silicon microsensors,
microactuators and polysihcon technology Since
1988 he has been professor of microsensors in
the Department of Electrical Engineering at the

Technical University of Berlin, Germany His cur-
rent interests include micromachmmg, microsen-
sors, smart sensors and microdynamical systems
Hubert W Benzel was born in Reutlingen, Ger-
many, on November 25, 1961 He received the
83
Dip! -Ing degree in electrical engineering from the
University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 1989
Since May 1989, he has been with the Institute
for Network and Systems Theory of the University
of Stuttgart His areas of interest are switched-
capacitor circuits and capacitive pressure sensors