US 11,817,838 B2
Amplification interface, and corresponding measurement system and method for operating an amplification interface
Calogero Marco Ippolito, Aci Castello (IT); and Michele Vaiana, San Giovanni la Punta (IT)
Assigned to STMicroelectronics S.r.l., Agrate Brianza (IT)
Filed by STMicroelectronics S.r.l., Agrate Brianza (IT)
Filed on Mar. 4, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/687,079.
Claims priority of application No. 102021000006098 (IT), filed on Mar. 15, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0302890 A1, Sep. 22, 2022
Int. Cl. H03F 3/45 (2006.01)
CPC H03F 3/45753 (2013.01) [H03F 2200/228 (2013.01); H03F 2200/331 (2013.01); H03F 2200/447 (2013.01); H03F 2200/471 (2013.01); H03F 2203/45441 (2013.01); H03F 2203/45514 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An amplification-interface circuit of a sensor circuit formed by a first field effect transistor (FET) and a second FET arranged in a differential pair to supply a differential current to a first node and a second node, comprising:
a differential-current reading circuit including a first input terminal connected to said second node and a second input terminal connected to said first node, said differential-current reading circuit comprising a continuous-time sigma-delta conversion circuit including at least one integrator-and-adder module generating an output signal that is coupled to an input of a multilevel quantizer circuit configured to output a multilevel quantized signal;
wherein said at least one integrator-and-adder module comprises:
a differential current-integrator circuit configured to output a voltage proportional to an integral of a difference between currents received at said first and second input terminals; and
a digital-to-analog converter, driven by a respective reference current generated by a reference current generator, configured to receive and convert said multilevel quantized signal into a differential analog feedback signal;
wherein said differential current-integrator circuit is configured to add said differential analog feedback signal to said currents received at said first input terminal and said second input terminal.