Design of an Integrated Liquid Lens Driver for a Vision System of an Endoscopic Capsule

Llus Freixas, Oscar Alonso, Angel Diguez

Department of Electronics, SIC, University of Barcelona C/Mart Franqus 1, Planta 2, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
lfreixes@el.ub.es oalonso@el.ub.es adieguez@el.ub.es Abstract The paper describes the electronics used to drive a liquid lens for a vision system of an endoscopic capsule. The liquid lens ARCTIC 416 works with high voltage signals. For this reason the driver integrates a boost converter to generate a supply voltage of 50 V from 3.3 V. An H-Bridge is the main block of the driver to drive the liquid lens. The H-Bridge transistors are controlled with specific level-shifters. An integrated 5 V Dickson charge pump is integrated to feed the level-shifters acting on the LV part of the H-bridge. Voltages to drive the levelshifters acting on the HV part of the H-Bridge are obtained from the boost. An ASIC has been fabricated to test the liquid lens driver designed. Keywords Liquid lens driver, endoscopic capsule, boost, charge pump, level-shifters, H-Bridge.

I. INTRODUCTION Liquid lenses have lots of applications in new technologies as cell phone cameras, web and laptops cameras, PDAs, bar code readers and endoscopes including cameras. Liquid lenses eliminate the need for moving parts in zoom and autofocus systems. Liquid lenses have the added benefit of being speedier and less power hungry than conventional lenses [1-2]. The liquid lenses have been developed by using the electrowetting technology [3]. Besides virtually no deterioration, easy control electronics and therefore costeffective fabrication, this type of liquid lenses enables extremely fast settling times compared to mechanical approaches. In effect, a spherical lens is formed by the meniscus of a liquid. By electrically manipulating the shape of a meniscus it is possible to create an auto focusing lens that can switch from a convex-shaped lens with a tight focus to a concave, divergent lens. The shape-changing process typically requires a few tens of volts and takes just a few milliseconds. The result is a highquality, compact autofocus lens that can tune its focal length from just a few centimetres to more than one metre. By applying an electric field across a hydrophobic coating it is possible to control just how hydrophobic it actually is, an effect known as electrowetting. When sealed in a container, flanked by such a coating, the meniscus or boundary layer between a water-based conducting liquid and an oil-based insulating liquid can be manipulated. With no current the

coating remains hydrophobic and the water tries to avoid contact with the edges of the container. This forces the oil to spread itself around the edge to act as a cover. As a result, the water seems to bead within the container and so acts like a concave divergent lens. When an electric field is applied the coating loses its hydrophobic properties and the surface tension between the two liquids drops letting the oil relax its state, allowing the water to touch the sides. As a consequence the bulge disappears and the meniscus flattens out to form a slight bulge in the opposite direction, a convex focusing lens. The liquid lens market is evolving rapidly thanks to the cameras for mobile phones, among others [4]. The camera modules resolution and performance in general, is improving quickly. In 2000 Samsung released the SCH-V200, a 0.3megapixel (MP) camera phone, and in 2003 NTT DoCoMo launched the first autofocus handset camera, the 1.3-MP P505iS. In 2005 Sony Ericsson launched what many consider the first real camera phone, the 2-MP K750i with autofocus. And in March of 2006 Samsung announced the SCH-B600, a 10-MP camera phone. What is now called the Evolution of Resolution is driving camera module development. In order to make the best use of the increased resolution, effective and rapid autofocus (AF) must accompany the increase in pixels. With autofocus becoming a standard feature, ever-increasing resolution will call for more camera features, such as optical zoom, shutter control, and image stabilization. A key element of many features is the ability to move the lens rapidly so as to achieve optimum focus. The work presented in this paper describes part of the electronics in a pill-sized endoscopic capsule with focusing. Particularly the paper focuses on the specifically designed driver of the liquid lens. The driver is integrated on the control ASIC of the capsule. This solution provides the smaller area of the endoscopic capsule. The whole capsule is being developed under the European project VECTOR [5]. The VECTOR project pursues the goal of realizing smart pill technologies and applications for gastrointestinal (GI) diagnosis and therapy. Cancers of the digestive tract are among the most significant killers in developed countries, with colon cancer ranging among the top 10 causes of death for both genders, male and female. If the disease is detected at

the stage of pre-malignancy, local therapy, such as tissue resection or destruction, can be used to eradicate the disease before malignant transformation and the onset of invasive cancer. The overall medical goal of the project is to enable medical devices through advanced technology that can dramatically improve early detection and treatment of GI early cancers and cancer precursors. Exploration to observe cancer effects is mainly done by a vision system and hence the importance of a good vision system integrated in the capsule [6-8]. The design has been done with the 0.35 m High Voltage process of AMS (AustriaMicroSystem), which allows voltages up to 50 V. This paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the architecture of the liquid lens driver. It is detailed the driver developed with the architecture of each block and the control signals that are needed. In Section III it is detailed the test done of the ASIC with the liquid lenses. Finally, the conclusions are presented. II. DRIVER DESCRIPTION The liquid lens used in the capsule is the ARCTIC 416, from Varioptic [9] that provides the growing market demands for small, reliable and inexpensive auto-focus solutions. It is a variable focus liquid lens, especially designed for 2 to 3 megapixel portable optical system, where its small size, large dynamic range and low wave front distortion will deliver outstanding performance, even in low light conditions. Taking full advantage of the ARCTIC 416 features, such as its inherent accuracy and un-matched response time, much simpler auto focus strategies can be applied to obtain sharp, crisp focus in time never reached before. Varioptic's liquid lens, which does not include any moving parts, features some crucial commercial advantages over traditional auto-focus technologies in terms of size, robustness, speed, price and power consumption. The diameter dimensions of the liquid lens are 7.75 x 1.6 mm, 2.3 mm of pupil diameter and the focal range is 60 mm to infinity. Low-voltage liquid lens driver have been designed for miniature Auto focus Camera Modules. Currently in the market, there are several circuits to control this liquid lens, such as the Drivic 60 LL3 (D388A) from Roger Corporation (Durel Division) [10], the MAX14515 from Maxim [11] and the CI HV895 low inductance from SuperTex [12]. The main handicap to use these chips is the large area that they occupy, 1 mm x 6 mm in the case of Supertex's HV895, 5 mm x 7 mm in case of D388A of Durel, and finally 1.2 mm x 2.3 mm in the case of Maxim MAX14515. Although some drivers already exist in the market, the driver must be redesigned in order to be included in the control IC of the capsule. Such IC contains more circuits, as two BLDC motor drivers, 16 LED drivers, a microcontroller, etc., and it properly drives and controls an endoscopic capsule robot. The main advantage of the redesign of the lens driver is the reduction of area, compared with the previous ones.

A. Lens Driver The liquid lens driver is composed by: Boost converter (50 V) Charge pump of 5 V Level-Shifters of 5 V Level-Shifters of 50 V H-Bridge Figure 1 illustrates the main blocks of the driver. The HBridge is composed by two HV-PMOS transistors, M1 and M2, which can afford a VDD of 50 V, and two HV-NMOS transistors, M3 and M4, which can afford a VDD of 5 V. The two outputs of the H-Bridge are connected directly to the liquid lens electrodes. The outputs are switching between 0 V to 50 V, and the voltage between the liquid lens electrodes switching between -50 V to 50 V.
Boost converter VDDH

Levelshifter

VDDH

V1

M1
VSSH

M2

V2

Charge Pump 5 V

Lens
VDDL V3 VSSL

Levelshifter

M3

M4

V4

Fig. 1: Architecture of the liquid lens driver.

The DC-DC Boost converter generates 50 V, which are used to feed the H-Bridge and the two level-shifters of 50 V. The two level-shifters of 50 V are connected directly to the gates of the two HV-PMOS transistors, M1 and M2, of the HBridge. The charge pump [13], based on the Dickson charge pump [14], generates 5 V, which are used to feed the two levelshifters of 5 V. The two level-shifters of 5 V are connected directly to the gates of the two HV-NMOS transistors, M3 and M4, of the H-Bridge. The different modules are described as follows: 1) Boost: 50 V generation can be carried out using a DCDC converter (boost) or with a charge pump. The charge pump requires too many stages to generate 50 V and the efficiency is really low. Therefore, we discarded a charge pump to produce 50 V. The best option, and used for the majority of the manufactures, is a DC-DC converter (boost), in spite of the external elements required. The DC-DC converter is a device with an output voltage greater than the source voltage. In this case we introduce 3.3 V to generate 50 V. The boost is composed by a diode, a switch, an inductance and a capacitor. The diode and the switch are integrated in the chip. It is necessary an external inductor and an external capacitor. The value of the inductance for a proper functioning of the liquid lens driver is

220 H and its size 2 x 2 mm2. The capacitor is 220nF and its size 1.6 x 0.8 mm2 [15]. To generate 50 V is necessary a PWM control signal of a 1MHz and 93.4% of the duty cycle. The Boost converter is programmable between 0 and 50 V. It is possible by changing the frequency and the duty cycle of the control signal. To make sure that the output does not exceed 50 V, which is a limit of the technology, it is necessary a voltage controller, based on a voltage divider. 2) Levels-Shifter: A PWM signal from 42 V to 48 V is necessary to control the HV part of the H-Bridge. In the LV part of the H-Bridge transistors is necessary a PWM signal from 0 V to 5 V. A level-shifter is used to generate these signals. Both level-shifters are based on a classic level-shifter and are built with HV transistors [16-17]. It is important to take into account that the PWM signals from the level-shifters of 50 V are inverted. It means that V1 is the inverted signal of V2. It is the same for the level-shifters of 5 V. The PWM signal V3 is the opposite PWM signal of the V4. Therefore is necessary a level-shifter for each gate of the H-Bridge. On the other hand, it should be taken into account that it is necessary to synchronize the level-shifters of 50 V with the level-shifters of 5 V. This allows a proper lossless functioning. The PWM signals V1 and V3 are synchronized. V2 and V4 are the inverted signals of the V1 and V3 PWM signals respectively. 3) 5 V Charge pump: An integrated 5 V charge pump is necessary to power the level-shifter of 5 V. A charge pump based on the Dickson model is another kind of structure to generate 5 V signals internally. The external components are not required, as show in the figure 2. A charge Pump is a voltage generator circuit that increase the supply voltage using capacitors arrays. It is a multi-stage design to obtain 5V from 1.8 V, where each stage increases the value of the output voltage. It is composed by three stages. It is necessary two clocks with the opposite signal, which is generated by an inverter.

in the output is required to maintain (support and hold) a constant voltage level in the output. It is also integrated and allows controlling the voltage ripple of the output. Figure 2 illustrates the schematic of the charge pump. B. Main features of the design Figure 3 illustrates the input and the output signals of the H-Bridge of the liquid lens. Out1 and Out2 oscillate between 0 and 50 V. S1 and S2 are the output signals of the levelshifter of 50 V and oscillate between 42 and 48 V. S3 and S4 are the output signals of the level-shifters of 5 V, between 0 and 5 V.

Out1

Out2

S1

S2

S3

S4

Figure 3: The input and the output of the H-Bridge of the liquid lens driver.

The final size of the layout is 1730 m x 530 m, occupying an area of 0.92 mm2. It has a maximum dynamic consumption of 88.2 mW. Figure 4 shows the image of the layout of a fabricated test ASIC. The central part of the layout corresponds to the liquid lens driver with all the blocs connected.

LS5

Charge Pump5V

HB

Boost

Figure 2: Schematic of a charge pump based on a Dickson charge pump.

In our design a 1.8 V input PWM signal with a 1 MHz frequency and a 50% duty cycle generates an output of 5V. The capacitors of the structure of the different stages are integrated, with a value of 10 pF. A greater capacity of 50 pF

Figure 4: Image of the layout of the fabricated ASIC.

Divisor

LS5 LS50

LS50

III. RESULTS The general set up to test is showed in figure 5. The control signals were generated by a microcontroller, and sent to the lens driver. The supply voltage, generated by the boost converter, change from 30 V to 50 V, modifying the focus of the liquid lens. Figure 6a shows an acquired image with the lens before focussing. Figure 6b shows an acquired image after focussing. All the different elements of the driver were also independently tested.

SMD inductor are only necessary. In spite of the liquid lens works with high voltage, it is only necessary a power supply of 1.8 V and 3.3 V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work has been supported by European Commission in the framework of two FP6 European Projects, namely VECTOR (EU/IST-2006-033970) [5].

Figure 5: Image of the test of liquid lens driver.

REFERENCES
[1] (a) [2] [3] [4] [5] Available at http://www.varioptic.com/banner/varioptic-liquid-lens-incamera-phones.php C. Gabay, B. Berge, B. Dovillaire, S. Bucourt, Dynamic study of a Varioptic variable focal lens, Spie 2002, Seatle. Available at http://www.varioptic.com/varioptic/tech/technology01.php Available at http://www.mobilewire.co.uk/16-12-2006-variopticsliquid-lenses-for-camera-phones-ready-for-market.html VECTOR Versatile Endoscopic Capsule for Gastrointestinal Tumor Recognition and Therapy FP6 European Project http://www.vectorproject.com G. Iddan, G. Meron, A. Glukhovsky. et al. Wireless capsule endoscopy, Nature, vol 405, pp. 417-418, May 25, 2000. Gheorghe C., Iacob R., Bancila I, Olympus Capsule Endoscopy for Small Bowel Examination, Journal Gastrointestin Liver Disseases, Vol. 16, n 3, 309 313. C. Cavallotti, F. Focacci, M. Piccigallo, E. Susilo, P. Valdastri, A. Menciassi, P. Dario; An Integrated Vision System with Autofocus for Wireless Capsular Endoscopy; Proceedings of EUROSENSORS 2008. Available at http://www.varioptic.com/res/products/MADS%20%20081128%20-%20ARCTIC%20416.pdf Datasheet Drivic 60 sereis application note. DrivIC 60 LL3 Reference Design I2C and PWM interfaces, Varioptic S.A., durel and linos. Available at http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/5949 Available at http://www.supertex.com/pdf/datasheets/HV895.pdf Ahmadi, M.M.; Jullien, G., A new CMOS charge pump for low voltage applications, Circuits and Systems, 2005. ISCAS 2005. IEEE International Symposium on, 23-26 May 2005 Page(s):4261 - 4264 Vol. 5. Jhon F. Dickson, On-Chip High-Voltage Generation in NMOS Integrated Circuit Using an Improved Voltage Mulipler Technique, IEEE Journal of solid-circuits, vol. Sc-11, NO Available at http://www.murata.com/catalog/c02e.pdf , Page(s): 17. Doutreloigne, J.; De Smet, H.; Van den Steen, J.; Van Doorselaer, G, Low-power high-voltage CMOS level-shifters for liquid crystal display drivers, Microelectronics, 1999. ICM'99. The Eleventh International Conference on 22-24 Nov. 1999. pp. 213 216. Dong Pan,Harry W. Li, Wilamowski, B.M.,A low voltage to high voltage level shifter circuit for MEMS application, Microelectronics Symposium, 2003, 15yh Biennial, Page(s): 128-131.

[6] [7]

[8]

[9] [10] (b) Figure 6: Acquired imaged before (above) and after (below) focusing. [11] [12] [13]

IV. CONCLUSIONS Mobile phone manufacturers are now demanding smaller mobile camera modules. Although this design was done for a liquid lens driver for an endoscopic capsule, it is useful for any applications that use an ARCTIC 416 liquid lens. It is possible to use any block separately for use in other devices. The main advantage of the driver designed is that it has been full custom design to be integrated in the main controller of an endoscopic capsule, assuming maximum integration and hence area miniaturization. An external SMD capacitor and

[14]

[15] [16]

[17]