An integrated optical position-sensitive detector with digital output and error correction

Abstract An integrated optical position-sensitive detector (PSD) with digital output is presented. A novel interpolating analog-to-digital converter which is based on a sigma-delta converter, is applied to perform three operations simultaneously. These are: calculation of the relative position cancellation of errors, both optical and electrical; generation of a microprocessor-compatible digital output. The realized smart sensor is integrated in a standard bipolar IC process, and measures 6.5 mm × 2.5 mm.