DESIGN OF FRACTIONAL OSCILLATOR CIRCUIT FOR SENSING DIFFERENT TYPES OF LOSSY CAPACITORS: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON STABILITY

Abstract

This article explores the novel concept of modeling lossy capacitive sensors as fractional capacitors and leveraging fractional oscillators a signal conditioning circuit to enhance sensor performance. The fractional oscillator offers several distinct advantages, notably, detecting a wide range of leakage resistance and capacitance values, while also enabling determination of sensor location within the circuit. To address low leakage resistance sensing, the oscillator is designed at 100 kHz, with comprehensive considerations for non-idealities such as limited gain and gain-bandwidth product. A simplified theory for analyzing the stability of the oscillator is discussed in which the stability is determined by comparing imaginary frequency to oscillating frequency.