A Low-Power Opamp-Less Second-Order Delta-Sigma Modulator for Bioelectrical Signals in 0.18 µm CMOS

This article reports on a compact and low-power CMOS readout circuit for bioelectrical signals based on a second-order delta-sigma modulator. The converter uses a voltage-controlled, oscillator-based quantizer, achieving second-order noise shaping with a single opamp-less integrator and minimal analog circuitry. A prototype has been implemented using 0.18 μm CMOS technology and includes two different variants of the same modulator topology. The main modulator has been optimized for low-noise, neural-action-potential detection in the 300 Hz–6 kHz band, with an input-referred noise of 5.0 μVrms, and occupies an area of 0.0045 mm2. An alternative configuration features a larger input stage to reduce low-frequency noise, achieving 8.7 μVrms in the 1 Hz–10 kHz band, and occupies an area of 0.006 mm2. The modulator is powered at 1.8 V with an estimated power consumption of 3.5 μW.

A High-Resolution and Low Offset Delta-Sigma Analog to Digital Converter for Detecting Photoplethysmography Signal

A high-resolution, low offset delta-sigma analog to digital converter for detecting photoplethysmography (PPG) signal is presented in this study. The PPG signal is a bio-optical signal incorporated with heart functionality and located in the range of 0.1–10 Hz. The location to get PPG signal is on a pulsating artery. Thus the delta-sigma analog-to-digital (DS ADC) converter is designed specifically in that range. However, the DS ADC circuitry suffers from 1/f noise under 10 Hz frequency range. A chopper based operational amplifier is implemented in DS ADC to push the 1/f noise into high-frequency noise. The dc offset of the operational amplifier is also pushed to the high-frequency region. The DS ADC circuitry consists of a second-order continuous-time delta-sigma modulator. The delta-sigma modulator circuitry is designed and simulated using TSMC 180 nm technology. The continuous-time delta-sigma modulator active area layout is 746μm × 399 μm and fabricated using TSMC 180 nm technology. It operates in 100 Hz bandwidth and 4096 over-sampling ratios. The SFDR of the circuit is above 70 dB. The power consumption of the delta-sigma modulator is 35.61μW. The simulation is performed in three different kinds of corner, SS, TT, and FF corner, to guarantee the circuitry works in different conditions.