Design and Evaluation of a Fast, High-R...

We present the design and implementation of an adaptable field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based sensor evaluation platform. This platform is developed to benchmark a capacitive position sensor for a resonant micromirror system. The sensor is developed in a smart packaging solution as a multilayer inkjet-printed electrode structure on a 3-D-printed metal housing. Very high required resolutions of res pos < 50 nm, together with a wide measurement range of rm = 1000 μm at an offset of d₀ =1000 μm, motivate the development of such a platform. Yet, it is fully adaptable to other sensing principles (e.g., inductive). The suggested platform provides high sampling rates (up to ≈10 ns) and enables generation of trigger signals, i.e., the mirror control signal, without time lag (as could result from high-order filters). The online configurable FPGA block structure in combination with host software blocks enables flexible and individual design. The sensor read-out circuitry is designed as a carrier frequency system. Such a carrier frequency system enables flexible choices of bandwidth and measurement signal frequency. It thus allows for separation in frequency from coupling parasitics, i.e., other frequencies present in the device under test (e.g., actuation frequency in case of the micromirror system).