Workshops and Tutorials
Monday 19 September 2022
Bosch - ASIC Development for MEMS Sensors - Challenges and Solution Approaches
(Room - Aula 1B)
Chair
Dirk Droste (Bosch Sensortec, DE)
Dirk Droste is Director R&D ASIC development at Bosch Sensortec GmbH and heads the ASIC design center of Bosch Sensortec in Dresden, Germany. He received diploma degree in Electrical Engineering of Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, and a PhD in Computer Science of University of Mannheim, Germany. His main focus is in microelectronic devices and systems and specifically in semiconductor design and manufacturing with a focus on sensing devices. In 2000 he joined Bosch group in semiconductor domain and since then he was deeply involved in ASIC design for Automotive and Consumer Electronics, mainly in domain of MEMS sensing devices. He published a number of articles around chip design and holds several patents in circuit and sensor design. Dirk Droste is member of IEEE.
Overview
ASIC development for Consumer and Automotive MEMS Sensors bears a tremendous dynamics with respect to elaborate on new measurands and smartness, to continuously lower power consumption and at same time to permanently increase measurement performance with respect to noise, offset stability, linearity and robustness. In this workshop Bosch Sensortec and Bosch Automotive Electronics wants to conduct expert sessions on a variety of focuses on ASIC development for MEMS sensors both in consumer and in automotive applications.
A first track will give an overview of Bosch Sensortec's view on current market demands; in a second track general architecture considerations will be given and in a third track, a focus will be layed on methodology of modeling and verification, to assure first time right despite increasing demands on sensor module's complexity and time to market. In a final track analogue frontend circuit approaches are described, which are suitable to meet high demands on MEMS sensor modules KPIs like power consumption, noise, offset stability, linearity and robustness.
08:30 - 08.40
Welcome and introduction
08:40 - 09.20
An overview about MEMS Sensor Market, Use Cases and Major Challenges
The overall MEMS market is still significantly growing, especially in the non-automotive area (Smartphones, wearables, hearables, gaming, IoT, industrial, robotics, health, white goods). The presentation will give an overview about markets and market segments, use-cases and Major Challenges due to increasing requirements with respect to functionality, smartness, size, integration level (Hardware and Software), performance (e.g. accuracy, noise), robustness and especially power-consumption. Also the usage of AI-based methods and/or embedded AI on the MEMS sensor itself as major part of an edge device will be briefly touched.
Speaker
Ralf Schellin (Bosch Sensortec, DE)
Ralf Schellin received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering and his Master degree in Technical Physics at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. Currently he is based in Reutlingen, Germany, where he is Head of the Product Area MEMS of Bosch Sensortec. Prior to this, he was Director of Product Management of Bosch Sensortec. From 2010 to 2014 he was leading a cross divisional project at Bosch on Tiny Wireless Sensors for the Internet of Things. From 2007 to 2009 he was leading an engineering group at Bosch Sensortec. Between 2001 and 2006 he held various positions in engineering and product management at Siemens in Munich, Germany, in the area of mobile devices based on IP technologies. Between 1996 and 2000 he was leading various projects in the automotive area of Bosch in Reutlingen working on safety relevant MEMS based sensors. Prior to Bosch he was holding a post-doc position in biosensors at University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
09:20 -10:00
Capacitive Sensor overview: Common background & main differences
For many years due to many reasons, capacitive sensors have barred the competition, leading the Consumer market. ASIC engineers have at their disposal many technique to exploit either common strengths and main differences. In this speech we will talk about the most common application areas.
Speakers
Ivano Galdi (Bosch Sensortec, IT)
Ivano Galdi, Ph.D. is now in the role of Analog & AMS Group Leader in Bosch Italia. Previously he has been deep involved in technical stuff as Analog Expert IC Design in Bosch Italia with focus on Sensors signal path since December 2015. From November 2015 to June 2013 Mr. Galdi worked as Senior Member of Technical Staff, IC Analog Design in Maxim Integrated for Automotive Sensors Division. Till May 2013 Mr. Galdi Worked as Expert Analog Design Consultant in STMicroelectronics in VRM and Power Management team since April 2009. From April 2009 to March 2008 Dr. Galdi worked as Senior Analog Designer for National Semiconductor in Precision Amplifier group with particular interest for native low noise & low offset Operational Amplifier and Chopper application. In December 2007 Mr. Galdi attended the Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering (started in the 2004) in the integrated Micro-Systems department of the University of Pavia focused on ADC converter development: mainly Sigma-Delta techniques, and Nyquist rate converter. During the Ph.D. course Dr. Galdi was author and co-author of several number of papers for international electronic conferences and Journal (JSSC).
Carlo Caminada (Bosch Sensortec, IT)
Carlo Caminada is working in Bosch Italia since December 2015, currently he is Project Manager for BST MEMS products, previously he was a Technical Project Manager to develop ASICs for Sensor market and early he was involved in the Analog and Mixed Signal simulations. Furthermore, in this time, Mr. Caminada had a short-term assignment in Bosch Sensortec HQ, located in Germany, with the role of Line Manager for the ASIC development team. From November 2015 to March 2011 Mr. Caminada worked as Principal Member of Technical Staff in Maxim Integrated for Consumer Sensors Division, where he first held the role of IC Senior Analog Design and then he held the of role of IC Analog Team Leader. From 1999 to 2011 Mr. Caminada worked in STM as analog design to development analog circuits for ASICs interface in the sensor field with focus on Gyroscope expertise. Moreover Mr. Caminada is owner of more than twenty patents related to Gyroscope, Accelerometer and Analog solution and he was co-author for a paper shown in annual conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society - iecon 2009.
10:00 -10:30
Break
10:30 - 11:00
Building Magnetic Shock Robustness into MR Magnetic Sensors: a Quality Factor for Applications
After shortly reviewing magnetic sensor consumer applications and MR technology, the impact of high external magnetic field is highlighted in specific use cases. The design of magnetic shock robustness into TMR magnetic sensors is discussed and some trade-offs are investigated.
Speaker
Guido De Sandre (Bosch Sensortec, IT)
Guido De Sandre, M. Sc. In electronics, is currently working in Bosch Sensortec as ASIC System Architect, IC Design. In this role, from 2016, he was involved in magnetic and inertial sensors projects, where he contributed to the sensor system architecture definition and designed various analog blocks, such as LDOs, oscillators and charge pumps. From 2012 to 2015 he was with Maxim Integrated, as Senior Member of Technical Staff, IC Design, in the Consumer Electronics Division. Till year 2011 he worked at STMicroelectronics, in the Central R&D organization, where since 2006 he led the project of silicon demonstrators for embedded Phase Change Memory technology. Previously, he was involved in the design and test of flash memory test vehicles aimed at technology development. He is author of several papers in the area of flash and PCM memories and holds more than 25 patents in the fields of non-volatile memories, circuit design and sensors for consumer electronics.
11:00 - 11:30
Digital design: techniques and methodologies to address different markets
Requirements for Consumer and Automotive applications pose different challenges to digital designers. This talk illustrates how digital design can use different techniques and methodologies, in order to address either safety critical applications for Automotive or low-power applications for Consumer market.
Speaker
Maria Silvia Ratto (Bosch Sensortec, IT)
Maria-Silvia Ratto is now in the role of Digital Design & Verification Group Leader in Bosch Italia. Previously she has been technical digital design leader of Pressure and IMU sensors in Bosch Italia since December 2015. From November 2015 to July 2007 Mrs. Ratto worked as Principal Member of Technical Staff, IC Analog Design in Maxim Integrated, being involved in digital design of PMICs and Sensors ICs. From June 2007 to November 1998 Mrs. Ratto worked for ST Microelectronics, in Memory Product Group and Data Storage division. Mrs. Ratto holds a master degree in Physics.
11:30 - 12:00
RF immunity: The new semiconductor challenge
Considering the growth of electronic devices number embedded in the most common consumer devices, characteristic such as robustness towards RF disturbances is increasingly important. In this presentation we will clarify some important aspects and analyze the evolutionary steps of the sensors in this direction.
Speaker
Mauel Santorro (Bosch Sensortec, IT)
Manuel Santoro is now in the role of Analog Expert IC Designer in Bosch Italia since December 2015. He is deeply involved in analog design for both power management and sensor signal path with special focus on high performance RF immunity circuitry for pressure sensor. Since March 2011 till November 2015 Mr. Santoro worked as Senior Member of Technical Staff as IC analog designer in Maxim Integrated for Consumer MEMS Sensors Division being involved in the concept of new gyroscope readout architecture and the design and verification of Low Pass and Bandpass Σ∆ ADCs. Since January 2007 till February 2011 Mr. Santoro worked as analog designer in STMicroelectronics with particular interest on low power and low area Nyquist rate ADCs. He is inventor of several patents on MEMS sensors and ADCs.
12:00 -13:30
Lunch
13:30 - 14:15
Top-Level verification: UVM techniques in top level AMS simulations
First-time-right design is critical to having a short time to market, and top level verification is becoming increasingly important. In this talk we will discuss the most common methodologies and strengths of UVM approaches applied to mixed mode simulations.
Speakers
Giulia Bombardi (Bosch Sensortec, IT)
Giulia Bombardi holds today the role of Analog Designer & AMS expert in Bosch Italy. She started her career in the Bosch Industry 4.0 Talent program in 2019. Her activities in the area of analog ASIC design for MEMS sensors are focused on power management, simulations and mixed-signal verification with responsibility for the final verification of ASICs top level. She previously worked at CERN where she developed a custom radiation resistant DRAM for particle detector applications. Ms. Bombardi graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 2019 with a degree in Electronic Engineering and during her master's studies was part of the Alta Scuola Politecnica school, where she worked with Bosch on a project for a pedal with haptic feedback for automotive components.
Alberto Raneri (Bosch Sensortec, IT)
Alberto Raneri is a Lead Verification Engineer at Bosch Italia. He was born in Agrigento, Sicily, and graduated at Polytechnic University of Milan, with a strong focus on analog design. He then moved into the digital and mixed-signal verification field, and he has been a verification engineer for more than 9 years. Before joining Bosch, Mr. Raneri worked in STMicroelectronics, with powertrain and safety devices, and in TDK-InvenSense, being involved in MEMS and Sensor ICs. In his spare time, he loves travelling, discovering new cultures, dancing Boogie-Woogie, and tasting wines as a Sommelier.
14:15 - 15:00
SystemC: An important methodology to assure First-Time-Right in HW/SW Codevelopment for new smart MEMS sensors
Advances in the semiconductor industry have led to the development of unobtrusive sensor systems with integrated processing units. These smart sensors have computational capabilities that significantly expand the design space of today's embedded systems. In particular, they open up new possibilities for the design of energy efficient, real time and low latency systems. However, the simultaneous increase in complexity requires new design methods. With the inclusion of software-programmable components, such a method must cover the entire system, including hardware and firmware components, leading to system-level approaches. In this talk, SystemC high-level models are proposed as an important ingredient of a system-level design methodology for smart sensors.
Speaker
Christian Haubelt (University Rostock,DE)
Prof. Christian Haubelt received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, in 2005. In 2010 he finished his Habilitation (postdoctoral lecture qualification) in Computer Engineering at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Since 2011, he is a full professor of Embedded Systems at the University of Rostock, Germany. He has co-authored more than 200 papers. His research focus is on the design and optimization of smart inertial sensors for human activity recognition systems including electronic system level design, high-level modeling based on SystemC, and model-based multi-objective optimization.
15:00 -15:30
Break
15:30 - 15:50
State-of-the-art closed-loop ASIC architecture for automotive gyroscopes
An introduction to a state-of-the-art closed-loop ASIC architecture for automotive MEMS gyroscopes will be given highlighting several system and evolutionary design aspects to fulfill the harsh automotive requirements, i.e. low noise, low offset drift, ASIL-D safety requirements and insensitivity to MEMS parameters.
Speaker
Mourad Elsobky (Bosch, DE)
Mourad Elsobky (Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Information Engineering and Technology from the German University Cairo (GUC), Egypt, in 2014, and the M.Sc. degree (Very Good) in communications technology from Ulm University, Germany, in 2015. He was recipient of the German DAAD Scholarship in 2014. In 2021, he received the Ph.D. degree (Hons.) from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, while being a Researcher with IMS CHIPS, Germany where he focused on Hybrid Systems-in-Foil. Since 2020, he has been a Research and Development Engineer with Robert Bosch GmbH, Reutlingen, Germany. He is currently working in the filed of inertial sensor systems.
15:50 - 16:10
Gyroscope open loop architectures: a mixed signal design playground
Consumer grade gyroscopes requirements focus on cost effective and low power products, led to the development of open loops architectures.
This talk will present several solutions for gyroscope frontend and drive control, analyzing tradeoffs and impact on the design of blocks on the analog and digital domain.
Speaker
Francesco Diazzi (Bosch Sensortec, DE)
Francesco Diazzi is Senior ASIC Development Manager at Bosch Sensortec, where he is leading ASIC design, verification and testing activities.
He has been designing analog frontend circuits and mixed-signal architectures for gyroscopes sensors, present in several inertial measurements units released for the consumer market.
Before joining Bosch Sensortec, he was sensing system engineer at Apple Inc., where he contributed to motion and environmental sensors specification and integration for the end-user products. He is author of a dozen on patents on gyroscope frontends and holds a M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Denmark Technical University (2010) and an M.Sc. degree in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (2011).
16:10 - 16:30
Evolution of accelerometer approaches in automotive from 90s until today
In this talk you will learn how the first acceleration frontends for automotive sensors worked and how they evolved since then with increasing performance and also higher robustness requirements. The various aspects of readout of MEMS accelerometers towards these requirements is highlighted. The talk is completed with an small excursion on how safety affects the whole development process.
Speaker
Tobias Maier (Bosch, DE)
Tobias Maier received his Dipl.-Ing. from Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany and joind the Robert Bosch GmbH for ASIC design in 2009. Since then he became an expert in frontend development for various applications including several acceleration sensor frontends. Besides the ASIC development he is in close collaboration with MEMS design and led the public founded project MEMS2015.
16:30 - 16:50
A highly linear dC/C accelerometer front-end
Most consumer grade MEMS capacitive accelerometers use dC readout techniques, resulting in a highly nonlinear characteristics for the overall sensor. This has a negative impact for instance on the vibrational robustness. dC/C readout techniques have better linearity, but usually tend to be more complex and less efficient in terms of area and current consumption. This talk describes a simple but highly linear dC/C front-end.
Speaker
Steffen Becker (Bosch Sensortec, DE)
Steffen Becker is working in Bosch Sensortec as an Analog Expert IC Designer since 2012, where he is mainly involved in the design of front-ends for acceleration sensors. From 2006 to 2012 he worked as a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Maxim Integrated for the Automotive Business Unit with focus on power management IC’s. Till 2006 he worked in the field of sensor signal conditioning. He holds several patents in the field of MEMS sensor readout and front-end circuits.
17:00 - 17:15
Closing
