Abstract
A monolithic CMOS chip able to count single airborne particles down to a diameter of 1 µm is presented. This mm-sized ASIC addresses the growing need for portable and miniaturized solid-state sensors monitoring air quality to be disseminated in the environment within pervasive wireless sensors networks. Particle counting and sizing are based on high-resolution capacitive detection. State-of-the-art performances (65 zF resolution with 40 Hz bandwidth) are enabled by the combination on the same chip of interdigitated microelectrodes (separated by 1 µm distance, matched with the particle size), and ultra-low-noise electronics connected to them achieving the lowest possible parasitic input capacitance. Chip design and characterization are illustrated.
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Carminati, M., Ciccarella, P., Sampietro, M., Ferrari, G. (2018). Single-Chip CMOS Capacitive Sensor for Ubiquitous Dust Detection and Granulometry with Sub-micrometric Resolution. In: Andò, B., Baldini, F., Di Natale, C., Marrazza, G., Siciliano, P. (eds) Sensors. CNS 2016. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 431. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55077-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55077-0_2
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