An Integrated Thermopile-Based Sensor with a Chopper-Stabilized Interface Circuit for Presence Detection

This paper presents a sensor-readout circuit system suitable for presence detection. The sensor consists of a miniaturized polysilicon thermopile, realized employing MEMS micromachining by STMicroelectronics, featuring a responsivity value equal to 180 V/W, with 13 ms response time. The readout circ...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elisabetta Moisello, Michele Vaiana, Maria Eloisa Castagna, Giuseppe Bruno, Piero Malcovati, Edoardo Bonizzoni
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-09-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/18/3999
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Summary:This paper presents a sensor-readout circuit system suitable for presence detection. The sensor consists of a miniaturized polysilicon thermopile, realized employing MEMS micromachining by STMicroelectronics, featuring a responsivity value equal to 180 V/W, with 13 ms response time. The readout circuit is implemented in a standard 130-nm CMOS process. As the sensor output signal behaves substantially as a DC, the interface circuit employs the chopper technique in order to minimize offset and noise contributions at low frequency, achieving a measured input referred offset standard deviation equal to 1.36 <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mi mathvariant="sans-serif">&#956;</mi> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>V. Measurements show that the presented system allows successfully detecting the presence of a person in a room standing at 5.5 m from the sensor. Furthermore, the correct operation of the system with moving targets, considering people either walking or running, was also demonstrated.
ISSN:1424-8220