Analysis and design of a transimpedance amplifier based front-end circuit for capacitance measurements

Abstract

In this study, transimpedance amplifier based front-end circuits which can be employed to measure small capacitances were designed, analyzed and simulated using analog electronic circuit simulator. The front-end circuit converts the current flowing through the measured capacitance into a modulated voltage value which contains information regarding the desired capacitance. The frequency-domain, time-domain, stability and noise analyzes were carried out numerically and in simulation environment using a circuit simulator. The analytical, numerical and simulation results can be used to design optimized, precise and stable transimpedance amplifiers with low-noise value. The measured capacitance value was 10 pF which is low enough to simulate various real-world applications. Three commercially available, off-the-shelf operational amplifiers with different peripheral passive components were employed for computer based analysis. The designed transimpedance amplifiers are suitable to connect with capacitance extraction circuits which use analog or digital demodulation techniques.