A system and method of replicating and cancelling chopping folding error in delta-sigma modulators. The modulator may include a loop filter coupled to a quantizer providing a digital signal, chopper circuitry that chops analog signals of the loop filter at a chopping frequency, and chopping folding error cancellation circuitry that replicates and cancels a chopping folding error of the chopper circuitry to provide a corrected digital signal. A digital chopper or multiplier chops the digital signal to provide a chopped digital signal, and the chopped digital signal is either amplified or multiplied by a gain value or digitally filtered to replicate the chopping folding error, which is then subtracted from the digital signal for correction. The timing and duty cycle of the chopping frequency may be adjusted. Timing and duty cycle adjustment may be calibrated along with the filtering.

A chopper circuit (100) for a multipath chopper amplifier (201) is described. The chopper circuit (100) comprises a first chopper device (110) in a first circuit path (111), wherein the first chopper device (110) is configured to be controlled by a first clock signal (315), which has a first frequency; and a second chopper device (120) in a second circuit path (121), parallel to the first circuit path (111), wherein the second chopper device (120) is configured to be controlled by a second clock signal (325), which has a second frequency, wherein the first frequency is greater than the second frequency. Furthermore, a corresponding method of chopping an input signal (102) is described.

In an embodiment a sensor arrangement includes a pressure sensor realized as a capacitive pressure sensor, a capacitance-to-digital converter coupled to the pressure sensor and implemented as a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter and a reference voltage generator having a control input configured to receive a control signal and an output configured to provide a reference voltage, wherein the output of the reference voltage generator is connected to an input of the capacitance-to-digital converter, wherein the reference voltage generator is configured to set a value of the reference voltage as a function of the control signal, and wherein at least two different values of the reference voltage have the same sign and different amounts.

Reference scaling, op amp balancing and chopper stabilization techniques for delta-sigma modulators of analog-to-digital converters are provided. For reference scaling, unit elements in a feedback digital-to-analog (DAC) converter are driven by a reference voltage or disconnected from active circuitry to realize three DAC levels. While disconnected, the unit elements deliver no charge to the device which results in power saving and a reduction in thermal noise. Op amp balancing involves down-sampling the quantizer output followed by up-sampling on the feedback path and filtering to hold a DAC value of the signal for a duration of a sampling period to generate the feedback signal. Chopper stabilization is performed by chopping an operational transconductance amplifier of the integrator at a chopping frequency equal to the sampling frequency.

A sensor readout circuitry comprises: a delta-sigma modulator; an input stage for receiving an analog sensor input signal, wherein a transconductance amplifier and a current mirror incorporate a flipped voltage follower, wherein a feedback signal from a digital-to-analog converter of the delta-sigma modulator is received such that subtraction between the analog sensor input signal and the feedback signal is performed in the transconductance amplifier and mirrored by the current mirror to an output of the input stage; wherein the transconductance amplifier comprises a first, second and third chopper, whereby a chopping loop between the first, second and third choppers is formed including an input transistor and current sources and whereby the analog sensor input signal is in baseband at a node in which the feedback signal is received.

An integrated circuit can include an amplifier coupled to receive an analog input signal, an anti-aliasing filter (AAF) coupled to an output of the amplifier, a buffer circuit coupled to an output of the AAF, a sigma-delta modulator configured to generate a digital data stream in response to an output of the buffer, and a plurality of chopping circuits nested within one another, including a first pair of chopping circuits having at least the amplifier disposed therebetween and configured to remove offset in the analog input signal, and a second pair of chopping circuit having at least the first pair of chopping circuits disposed therebetween. The amplifier, AAF, sigma-delta modulator, and chopping circuits can be formed with the same integrated circuit substrate. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

The digital-output temperature sensor includes a temperature sensor circuit, a current mirror circuit which makes a mirror current of a temperature detection current flow and pulls in a mirror current of a reference current to thereby output a first difference current from a first output node and output a second difference current from a second output node, a chopping circuit, and an A/D conversion circuit. The chopping circuit performs a chopping operation of making the mirror current of the reference current flow in a second state through a transistor of the current mirror circuit through which the mirror current of the temperature detection current flows in a first state, and making the mirror current of the temperature detection current flow in the second state through the transistor of the current mirror circuit through which the mirror current of the reference current flows in the first state.

A signal processing system may include a signal path and a chop management circuit. The signal path may comprise a chopper configured to chop a differential input signal to the signal path at a chopping frequency and a low-pass filter downstream of the chopper and configured to filter out intermodulation products of a direct current offset of the signal path and intermodulation products of an aggressor on the differential input signal in order to generate an output signal. The chop management circuit may be communicatively coupled to the chopper and configured to, based on operational parameters associated with the signal path, dynamically manage energy of one or more clock signals used to define the chopping frequency.

A signal processing system may include a sensor readout channel configured to convert an electronic signal into a digital quantity. The sensor readout channel may include a first-order sigma-delta modulator having a modulator input and a modulator output, first outside chopping switches located at the modulator input, second outside chopping switches located at the modulator output, an auxiliary path comprising an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) having an auxiliary path input and an auxiliary path output, the auxiliary path input configured to receive as its input signal a signal output by a memory element of the first-order sigma-delta modulator, and a signal combiner configured to combine a modulator output signal generated by the first-order sigma-delta modulator with an auxiliary path output signal generated by the auxiliary path to generate a combined output signal.

A signal processing system may include a sensor readout channel configured to convert an electronic signal into a digital quantity, the sensor readout channel comprising an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) having an input and an output, first outside chopping switches located at the input of the ADC, and second outside chopping switches located at the output of the ADC. The ADC may comprise a memory element, first inside chopping switches located at the input of the memory element, and second inside chopping switches located at the output of the memory element. The first outside chopping switches, the second outside chopping switches, the first inside chopping switches, and the second inside chopping switches may be switched at the same frequency such that the memory element is swapped periodically in synchronization with the first outside chopping switches and second outside chopping switches.