A High Noise Immunity, 28 × 16-Channel Finger Touch Sensing IC Using OFDM and Frequency Translation Technique

• Main Authors: SangYun Kim, Behnam Samadpoor Rikan, YoungGun Pu, Sang-Sun Yoo, Minjae Lee, Keum Cheol Hwang, Youngoo Yang, Kang-Yoon Lee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-05-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: analog front-end; capacitive touch panel; orthogonal frequency division multiplexing; low pass filter; variable gain amplifier; mixer
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/5/1652

In this paper, a high noise immunity, 28 × 16-channel finger touch sensing IC for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) touch sensing scheme is presented. In order to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the OFDM sensing scheme is proposed. The transmitter (TX) transmits the orthogonal signal to each channels of the panel. The receiver (RX) detects the magnitude of the orthogonal frequency to be transmitted from the TX. Due to the orthogonal characteristics, it is robust to narrowband interference and noise. Therefore, the SNR can be improved. In order to reduce the noise effect of low frequencies, a mixer and high-pass filter are proposed as well. After the noise is filtered, the touch SNR attained is 60 dB, from 20 dB before the noise is filtered. The advantage of the proposed OFDM sensing scheme is its ability to detect channels of the panel simultaneously with the use of multiple carriers. To satisfy the linearity of the signal in the OFDM system, a high-linearity mixer and a rail-to-rail amplifier in the TX driver are designed. The proposed design is implemented in 90 nm CMOS process. The SNR is approximately 60 dB. The area is 13.6 mm2, and the power consumption is 62.4 mW.