Low-Power Highly Robust Resistance-to-Period Converter.

This paper presents a novel structure of Resistance- to-Period (R-T) Converter highly robust to supply and temperature variations. Robustness is achieved by using the ratiometric approach so that complex circuits or high accuracy voltage references are not necessary. To prove the proposed architecture of R-T converter, a prototype was implemented in a 0.18 µ m CMOS process with a single supply voltage of 1.8 V and without any stable reference voltage. Experimental results show a maximum ±1.5% output signal variation for ±10% supply voltage variation and in a 3⁻95 ° C temperature range.

An integrated low-power lock-in amplifier and its application to gas detection.

This paper presents a new micropower analog lock-in amplifier (LIA) suitable for battery-operated applications thanks to its reduced size and power consumption as well as its operation with single-supply voltage. The proposed LIA was designed in a 0.18 µm CMOS process with a single supply voltage of 1.8 V. Experimental results show a variable DC gain ranging from 24.7 to 42 dB, power consumption of 417 µW and integration area of 0.013 mm2. The LIA performance was demonstrated by measuring carbon monoxide concentrations as low as 1 ppm in dry N2. The experimental results show that the response to CO of the sensing system can be considerably improved by means of the proposed LIA.