This paper presents a VCO-based EPR-on-a-chip (EPRoC) sensor for portable, battery-operated electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometers. The proposed chip contains an array of 14 injection-locked VCOs as the sensing element for an improved sensitive volume and phase noise performance. By cointegrating a high-bandwidth PLL, the presented design allows for continuous-wave and rapid-scan EPR experiments with a minimum number of external components. The active loop filter introduces an assisted replica charge pump that mitigates the slewing requirements on the loop-filter amplifier. The measured spin sensitivity of 2×10<sup>9</sup> spins/$Hz $ together with the large active volume of 210 nl lead to an 8-fold improvement in concentration sensitivity compared to the state-of-the-art in EPRoC detectors.
%0 Conference Paper
%1 9639513
%A Hassan, Mohamed Atef
%A Elrifai, Tarek
%A Sakr, Ayman
%A Kern, Michal
%A Lips, Klaus
%A Anders, Jens
%B 2021 IEEE Sensors
%D 2021
%K from:michalkern myown
%P 1-4
%R 10.1109/SENSORS47087.2021.9639513
%T A 14-channel 7 GHz VCO-based EPR-on-a-chip sensor with rapid scan capabilities
%X This paper presents a VCO-based EPR-on-a-chip (EPRoC) sensor for portable, battery-operated electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometers. The proposed chip contains an array of 14 injection-locked VCOs as the sensing element for an improved sensitive volume and phase noise performance. By cointegrating a high-bandwidth PLL, the presented design allows for continuous-wave and rapid-scan EPR experiments with a minimum number of external components. The active loop filter introduces an assisted replica charge pump that mitigates the slewing requirements on the loop-filter amplifier. The measured spin sensitivity of 2×10<sup>9</sup> spins/$Hz $ together with the large active volume of 210 nl lead to an 8-fold improvement in concentration sensitivity compared to the state-of-the-art in EPRoC detectors.
@inproceedings{9639513,
abstract = {This paper presents a VCO-based EPR-on-a-chip (EPRoC) sensor for portable, battery-operated electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometers. The proposed chip contains an array of 14 injection-locked VCOs as the sensing element for an improved sensitive volume and phase noise performance. By cointegrating a high-bandwidth PLL, the presented design allows for continuous-wave and rapid-scan EPR experiments with a minimum number of external components. The active loop filter introduces an assisted replica charge pump that mitigates the slewing requirements on the loop-filter amplifier. The measured spin sensitivity of 2×10<sup>9</sup> spins/$\sqrt {{\text{Hz}}} $ together with the large active volume of 210 nl lead to an 8-fold improvement in concentration sensitivity compared to the state-of-the-art in EPRoC detectors.},
added-at = {2022-01-10T16:47:01.000+0100},
author = {Hassan, Mohamed Atef and Elrifai, Tarek and Sakr, Ayman and Kern, Michal and Lips, Klaus and Anders, Jens},
biburl = {https://puma.ub.uni-stuttgart.de/bibtex/2d5024f967291b0bf1c2fafaf150d5b88/iis},
booktitle = {2021 IEEE Sensors},
doi = {10.1109/SENSORS47087.2021.9639513},
interhash = {b2f8c3f43146f33134c741430fb0fd68},
intrahash = {d5024f967291b0bf1c2fafaf150d5b88},
issn = {2168-9229},
keywords = {from:michalkern myown},
month = oct,
pages = {1-4},
timestamp = {2022-01-10T15:47:01.000+0100},
title = {A 14-channel 7 GHz VCO-based EPR-on-a-chip sensor with rapid scan capabilities},
year = 2021
}
