The path to no-drift sensors with on-chip stress calibration

Erdinç Tatar

Bilkent University – Electrical and Electronics Engineering, UNAM

The path to no-drift sensors with on-chip stress calibration

Navigation is vital for the future of autonomous mobility.  Data from multiple sensing modalities (GPS, camera, radar, …) are fused in navigation.  Among these sensors, inertial navigation is error-proof and can fit into every car and smartphone if a low-cost, no-drift sensor is invented.  Drift is a major problem for inertial sensors, limiting their utilization in navigation applications.  Inertial sensor data, i.e., acceleration and rotation, is integrated to find the position, and drift leads to unacceptable position error over time.  The common drift suppression approach is temperature calibration, but various works have shown that it cannot eliminate the drift.  The drift mechanisms are complex and cannot be fully characterized by simple temperature measurements.  So, I propose an on-chip stress calibration approach that directly correlates with the drift. We integrate multiple stress sensors and the inertial sensor on the same chip and achieve state of the art drift performance with on-chip stress sensing.  Functional calibration requires deep understanding of the device and temperature effects.  I will present our drift solution approach, which includes sensor and electronics design, analytical modeling, and combining temperature and stress measurements.

Konuşmacı hakkında

Erdinc Tatar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Bilkent University.  He is also affiliated with National Nanotechnology Center of Turkey (UNAM).  He received B.S. and M.S. degrees (with high honors) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey, and Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, in 2008, 2010, and 2016 respectively.

He was a Graduate Research Assistant with Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems Research and Applications Center, METU, and with Carnegie Mellon University from 2008 to 2011, and 2012 to 2016, respectively.  From 2016 to 2019 he worked as a MEMS Design Engineer responsible for the development of next generation gyroscopes in Analog Devices, Inc., Wilmington, MA.  His research interests include MEMS sensors (specifically Inertial and Gas sensors), microfabrication and packaging technologies, and readout and control electronics for MEMS sensors.

Dr. Tatar is a recipient of International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers by TUBITAK, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellowship and European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant by the European Union.