Examination

Electronic Instrumentation (ET8017)

Monday, November 3, 2014, 14:00-17:00

Thereare5questionsintheexam
allofwhichshouldbeattempted.

Pleasesupportyouranswerswiththeappropriate
explanations,drawingsandcircuitdiagrams,
andclearlystateyourassumptions!

Onlytextbooksandtheslides
canbetakenintotheexam

Good luck!

1.

Asshownbelow,anoscillatorisusedtoreadoutadifferentialcapacitivesensor.

A) IfthesensorsdifferentialcapacitancechangeisCanditsnominalvalueisCS,derivean
expressionfortheoscillatorsperiod.

B) Assumingthattheopampsvoltagenoiseistheonlysourceofnoise,explainhowthisadds
noise(jitter)totheoscillatorsperiod.Calculatethecontributionoftheopampsnoisetothe
comparatorsinputreferrednoise.Iftherestofthecircuitremainsunchanged,wouldyou
expectanincreaseinCStoincreaseordecreasetheoscillatorsjitter?Motivateyouranswer!

C) Since a practical implementation of the oscillator will suffer from parasitic capacitances, a
direct measurement of the oscillators frequency will result in offset and gain errors.
Describehowthe3signalmethodcouldbeemployedtoincreasemeasurementaccuracy.

2. As shown below, the core of a temperature sensor employs two identical bipolar junction
transistors(BJTs)biasedata1:5currentratiotogenerateavoltageVtemp.AssumethattheBJTs
basecurrentcanbeneglectedandthattheirbaseemittervoltageVbe=(kT/q)ln(Ic/Is),whereIsis
thetransistorssaturationcurrent,andthatkT/q=26mVatroomtemperature(21C).

A) DeriveanexpressionforVtempasafunctionoftemperature.

B) Assumingthatthesmallestcurrentsourcesuffersfrom1%mismatchatroomtemperature,
calculatetheworstcaseequivalenttemperatureerrorinVtemp.

C) Describe how dynamicelement matching (DEM) can be used to mitigate the effect of
current source mismatch on the accuracy of Vtemp. Draw a circuit diagram showing your
proposedDEMscheme.Howmanyswitchesdoesitrequire?

D) AftertheapplicationofthisDEMscheme,computetheequivalenttemperatureerrorinthe
averagevalueofVtemp.Assumethatonlytheunitcurrentsourcesuffersfrom1%mismatch.

3. A voltage amplifier consists of a transconductor (voltage to current converter) Gm1 and an

outputresistanceR.Toreduceitsinputreferredoffset,theoffsetofGm1isautozeroedwiththe
helpofanauxiliarytransconductorGm2asshownbelow(intheautozerophase).

A) Notingthatbothtransconductorshaveoffset,deriveanexpressionfortheamplifiersinput
referredresidualoffsetafterautozeroing.

B) In practice, the switches shown will be implemented with MOSFETs, which suffer from
chargeinjection.Calculatethemaximumadditionalinputoffsetifeachswitchcanrandomly
generate up to Q pC of charge injection (which may be assumed to be divided equally
betweentheswitchterminals).

C) Ifwewanttominimizetheeffectsofchargeinjection,whatistheoptimumvalueofGm2?
AssumethatGm1=1mS,Vos1=Vos2=10mVandthatthetransconductorsoutputswingis
1.01V.Clearlymotivateyouranswerandstateanyadditionalassumptionsmade.

4. A temperature sensor can be implemented by embedding a thermistor into an RC filter, and

then measuring the resulting temperaturedependent phaseshift. As shown below, such a
systemconsistsofasinewavegenerator,aphasedelay,andasynchronousdemodulatorbased
onachopperandanidealLPfilter.ThethermistorsresistancecanbeexpressedasR=R0(1+(T
T0)),whereTisthetemperatureindegreesCelsius,R0istheshuntsresistanceatT0=21Cand
isitstemperaturecoefficient.

A) Inordertomaximizethesystemssensitivityatroomtemperature,whataretheoptimum
values of the sinewave frequency fdrive and the phase delay ()? Under these conditions,
sketchthewaveformsattheoutputoftheRCfilterandattheoutputofthechopper.

B) DeriveanexpressionfortheDCcomponentofVoutasafunctionoftemperature.

C) Ifthereistobenooutputripple,whatisthemaximumBWofthesystem?Giventhatthe
buffer has a 1/f flicker corner at fcorner, what is the minimum value of fdrive that
simultaneouslyachievesthismaximumBWandsuppressesthe1/fnoiseofthe1xbuffer?

5. AWheatstonebridgeisusedtoreadouttwostraingaugesRSasshownbelow.Eachstraingauge
hasanominalresistanceofRwhichincreasesbyanamountRinresponsetoanappliedstrain.
To linearize its transfer function, the bridge can be connected (via the dotted lines) to a
transconductor(avoltagetocurrentconverter)withagainofGm.

A) With the transconductor disconnected, derive an expression for the bridge output voltage
Voutasafunctionoftherelativechangeinthestraingaugesresistance,i.e.R/R.Ifthishas
amaximumof20%,calculatethemaximumrelativenonlinearityinVout.

B) Repeat the derivation above for the case when the (ideal) transconductor is connected to
thebridge.WhatvalueofGmlinearizestherelationshipbetweenVoutandR/R?Andwhatis
thentherelationshipbetweenVoutandR/R?

Strong hint: Use superposition to solve part B. I.e. separately analyse the contributions of
theexcitationvoltageVBandthetransconductorsoutputcurrenttoVout.