Title :
Microfabricated thermal absolute-pressure sensor with on-chip digital front-end processor
Author :
Mastrangelo, Carlos H. ; Muller, Richard S.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA
fDate :
12/1/1991 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
A thermal absolute pressure sensor of the heated microbridge type has been integrated with an active bias circuit and an 8-b successive approximation register analog/digital (A/D) converter. The chip, which contains about 1000 devices, is sensitive to variations in absolute gas pressure between 10 and 104 Pa, and it is implemented in a 4-Um NMOS technology merged with the microsensor process. The output of the chip is a robust digital signal adequate for transmission in high noise environments
Keywords :
MOS integrated circuits; digital integrated circuits; electric sensing devices; elemental semiconductors; large scale integration; pressure transducers; silicon; vacuum gauges; 10 to 104 Pa; 4 micron; 8 bit; NMOS technology; absolute gas pressure; active bias circuit; heated microbridge type; microsensor process; on-chip digital front-end processor; polycrystalline Si microbridge; robust digital signal; semiconductors; successive approximation register ADC; thermal absolute-pressure sensor; transmission in high noise environments; vacuum gauges; Heat transfer; Integrated circuit technology; Laboratories; MOS devices; Microsensors; Registers; Substrates; Thermal conductivity; Thermal sensors; Wire;
Journal_Title :
Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of
