A low-noise and monolithic array tactile sensor, in which a tactile sensing unit, a low-noise analog front end (AFE), and a high-resolution delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ΔΣ ADC) are fully integrated, is presented in this paper. In this proposed system, compared with a discrete-device-based board-level system, the parasitic effect of a long cable connection can be reduced, and results are more accurate. Furthermore, a smaller system area and a lower power consumption can be achieved in this monolithic system. A discrete-continuous mixed mode bandpass AFE is proposed to filter out low-frequency flicker noise and high-frequency white noise. In order to improve the quantization rate of the sensor readout circuit and further suppress the high-frequency noise, a two-way alternate sample-and-hold circuit scheme is adopted in this design. The proposed tactile sensor is designed and fabricated in a 0.5-μm CMOS (Complementary metal oxide semiconductor)mixed-signal process with a 16 × 16 array and a total chip area of 1.9 × 1.9 cm2. This chip consumes 33.5 mW from a 5 V supply. The measurement results showed that the signal-to-noise and distortion rate (SNDR) was 65.2894 dB and that the effective number of bits (ENoB) was 10.553 dB. Moreover, this sensor could achieve a pressure measurement range of 0.002–0.5 N with a resolution of 0.4 mN.

This paper presents a low-noise analog front end (AFE) with interstage systematically ambient interference cancellation for a pulse oximeter, which is suitable for clinical oxygen saturation (SPO2) detection with a low perfusion index. The fully differential implementation is adopted to have a better rejection performance of common mode interference and noise. Firstly, the proposed interstage systematically ambient interference cancellation is placed in the two gain stages to decrease low frequency noise in the bandwidth of interest (0.1–20 Hz), so that the larger signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be achieved to increase the detection accuracy of this system. Secondly, due to the additional gain stage compared with traditional implementation, the current-reuse OTA is employed to have better noise and power efficiency. Thirdly, the auto zero technique is utilized in the LED Driver to decrease the offset voltage and acquire a larger dynamic range (DR) in the low frequency bandwidth of interest. This PPG AFE chip is designed and fabricated in a 180 nm standard CMOS process. The receiver (RX) of this AFE consumes 220 μW from a 1.8 V supply, and the power consumption of the transmitter (TX) is 60 μW from a 3 V supply. The measurement results show that the input-referred noise current of 2.3 pA/sqrt(Hz) is achieved in RX and 110 dB peak DR is obtained in TX.