ICDSIP | March 07-08, 2017 International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
MIT, Aurangabad (Maharashtra) India ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6, Issue-ICDSIP17, March 2017
Synthesis of AMS Based System-on-Chip for
Measurement of Physicochemical Parameters of
Water
S. K. Tilekar, S. C. Pathan, P. V. Mane-Deshmukh, S. V. Chavan, B. P. Ladgaonkar
 Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) [1]. Therefore, AMS
Abstract— An innovative technology, Analog Mixed Signal
(AMS) based VLSI design, is realizing commendable dynamic
reconfigurability of on-chip resources, analog as well as digital,
which furnishes needs ubiquitous System-on-Chip (SoC) design.
It reveals wide spectrum of applicability, particularly in the field
of precision measurements and controlling of various parameters
such as pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), concentration of
Dissolved Oxygen (DO), etc., of liquid. Further, the deployment of
AMS based Programmable SoC (PSoC) overcomes constraints in
the configurability and has ultra-low power consumption, which
is otherwise exhibited by traditional VLSI. Therefore, deploying
PSoC5 device the SoC for temperature compensated EC and pH
measurement of water is synthesised and presented in this paper.
The AD590, standard EC electrode and standard pH electrode
are wired off the chip for the synthesis of this SoC. Deploying the
on-chip resources of the CY8C55 series PSoC device and ensuring
co-development process, the necessary DAS is configured and
routed in PSoC device by PSoC Creator2.1 environment.
Configuring 10-bit ƩΔADC, the preciseness of parameter
measurement is achieved. The SoC is calibrated to the standard
units by employing scientific method and standardize with
sophisticated instrument from standard Hanna make meter and
results are interpreted in this paper.
Index Terms— Analog Mixed Signal, PGA, Conductivity, pH,
PSoC..
I. INTRODUCTION
Indeed, advances in the VLSI domain emerges an
innovative technology, Analog and Mixed Signal (AMS)
based system design, wherein reconfigurability, scalability,
portability, ultra-low power consumption, etc. are
significantly emphasized while synthesis of an ubiquitous
Revised Version Manuscript Received on March 08, 2017.
S. K. Tilekar, VLSI Design and Research Centre, Post Graduate
Department of Electronics, Shankarrao Mohite Mahavidyalaya, Akluj, Dist.
Solapur (Maharashtra), India - 413101
S. C. Pathan, VLSI Design and Research Centre, Post Graduate
Department of Electronics, Shankarrao Mohite Mahavidyalaya, Akluj, Dist.
Solapur (Maharashtra), India - 413101
P. V. Mane-Deshmukh, VLSI Design and Research Centre, Post
Graduate Department of Electronics, Shankarrao Mohite Mahavidyalaya,
Akluj, Dist. Solapur (Maharashtra), India - 413101
S. N. Patil, VLSI Design and Research Centre, Post Graduate
Department of Electronics, Shankarrao Mohite Mahavidyalaya, Akluj, Dist.
Solapur (Maharashtra), India - 413101
S. V. Chavan, VLSI Design and Research Centre, Post Graduate
Department of Electronics, Shankarrao Mohite Mahavidyalaya, Akluj, Dist.
Solapur (Maharashtra), India - 413101
B. P. Ladgaonkar, VLSI Design and Research Centre, Post Graduate
Department of Electronics, Shankarrao Mohite Mahavidyalaya, Akluj, Dist.
Solapur (Maharashtra), India – 413101
147
design technology exhibits wide spectrum of applications in
various domains from simple domestic to critical industrial
applications. Moreover, the designing of the SoC for
precision measurement of physicochemical parameters such
as dissolved oxygen, conductivity, turbidity, pH, etc.is novel
field of research [2]. These physicochemical parameter
measurements has meritorious application domain.
Presently, many investigators are designing an embedded
system to measure these parameters by employing
microcontrollers and microprocessors of promising features
[3-6]. But these embedded systems realize concept of
System-on-Board (SoB), because analog design is always off
the chip. Furthermore, conventional operational amplifiers
low input impedance, limited input bias current, has
interfacing constraints. It is due the fact that the
physicochemical sensors, have input impedance in the range
of GΩ. Therefore, to surmount the designing constraints of
the microcontroller based embedded system the investigators
are switching towards the VLSI based configurable devices.
The VLSI devices, CPLD and FPGA, have the poor
reconfigurability and analog data acquisition is off the chip.
The field of Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) of the
AMS technology ensures better integrability and
commendable reconfigurability of analog as well as digital
resources and ultra-low power consumption. Hence, to
configured dedicated embedded system on a chip the PSoC
devices are highly suitable. The vendors, Cypress
Semiconductors, Altera, Actel, etc., are providing AMS based
PSoC chips of their own features, wherein single chip is
facilitate with both analog as well as digital cores of high
reconfigurability along with the cores of computing devices.
It is found that, the investigators [7-9] have designed the
PSoC based SoC for physical parameters measurement
employing the PSoC1 device. However, the reports designing
of system for the precision physicochemical parameters
measurement, employing AMS technology, is rather rare.
Therefore, employing an AMS based VLSI technology the
SoC is designed for measurement of pH and electrical
conductivity of the water under investigation. The designing
issues and results of its implementation are interpreted in this
paper.
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 Synthesis of AMS Based System-on-Chip for Measurement of Physicochemical Parameters of Water
II. SYNTHESIS OF AMS BASED SOC
Emphasising the features of Cypress PSoC5 series
CY8C5568AXI-060 device is opted to synthesis this SoC.
The Cypress PSoC5 has wide range of integrated analog as
well as digital highly dynamic reconfigurable modules and
Application Programming Interface (API) routines which
furnishes faster co-development of SoC. An IDE provided by
Fig. 1: Schematic of System on Chip to Measure pH and Conductivity.
Both the physicochemical parameters, EC and pH, are
temperature dependent [14, 17]. Hence, the precision
temperature measurement is carried out by deploying the
AD590, temperature sensor, off the chip. The 1 mA on-chip
constant current source, IDAC8_1, is configured by
employing the current DAC and applied to temperature sensor
through Analog Pin, Pin_1. The temperature dependent
current 1 µA/K generated by the AD590 is converted into
analog emf VT, 1 mV/K, by passing the same through 1 KΩ
resistor and available at Analog Pin, Pin_2. This VT is
extracted through buffer, which is configured using on-chip
operational amplifier, Opamp_2 and applied to the first
channel of the analog multiplexer, AMuxSeq_1. The
incorporation of the multiplexer reduces the area of
integration and power dissipation as well. The Pin_1 and
Pin_2 of PSoC device are configured as Analog Pin at P0(6)
opamp:out and P0(4) opamp+ respectively.
To sense the Electrical Conductivity (EC) dependent emf
of the water, a standard EC electrode (K=1) from
Equip-Tronics, is used. From literature survey, it is found
that, pulsating or AC is suitable source for excitation. A DC
excitation causes the migration of ions and develops a thin
layer of oxide on the plates of electrode, which degrades the
electrode and electrolyte [11].However, to avoid the damage
148
Cypress for development of the SoC is PSoC Creator2.1.
The SoC, for measurement of temperature compensated pH
and AC Electrical Conductivity (EC), is co-developed by
employing the Cypress PSoC5 development board. The
schematic is depicted in the Fig. 1. The first, second and third
channels are configured for temperature, EC and pH
measurement respectively and are discussed through
following paragraphs.
of the electrode and betterment of result the frequency and
amplitude of the source must be in the range of 200 Hz to 10
KHz and less than 1.3 V respectively. Therefore, AC
excitation source having frequency 541 Hz and amplitude 1.2
V is wired about the CMOS operational amplifier, MCP606
and it is powered by highly stable power supply of the PSoC5
development board. This excitation potential is applied to the
EC electrode through buffer configured the on-chip,
Opamp_1. The Analog Pins, Pin_3 and Pin_4 of PSoC5
device are configured as input and output of buffer using ports
P0(2) opamp+ and P0(0) opamp:out respectively. The
conductivity dependent analog emf (VCE) is developed
across the resistor, 1KΩ, at Analog Pin, Pin_5, is extracted
through on-chip Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA),
PGA_1. This is configured as unity gain amplifier and its
output is applied to the second channel of the AMuxSeq_1.
Thus EC electrode is truly isolated between the two buffers.
The Pin_5 is configured to ports P0(4) opamp+ of PSoC
Device. Another parameter pH is sensed by employing the
standard potentiometric glass pH electrode, Equip-Tronics
make. This potentiometric electrode is excited by the on-chip
DC source,
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ICDSIP | March 07-08, 2017 International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
MIT, Aurangabad (Maharashtra) India ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6, Issue-ICDSIP17, March 2017
VDAC8_1, of 420 mV [12], which is configured by
introducing the Voltage DAC, VDAC. This excitation
potential is also buffered, Opamp_3, by using on-chip
operational amplifier. The electrode is interfaced in between
the two Analog Pins, Pin_6 and Pin_7, which are configured
as high impedance analog device mode. The resulting pH
dependent analog emf (VpH) is extracted through on-chip
PGA, PGA_2, as preamplifier. To cater the need of input
impedance more than 100 MΩ PGA is configured as unity
gain amplifier, as pH electrode has impedance more than 100
MΩ [12]. Therefore, pH electrode is also truly isolated by use
the two buffers. This VpH is applied to the third channel of the
AMuxSeq_1. The Pin_6 and Pin_7 are is configured to ports
P3(7) opamp:out and P5(7) opamp+ of PSoC Device,
respectively. Now both physicochemical parameters
dependent analog signals, VEC and VpH, along with the
temperature analog signal, VT, are sequentially applied to
on-chip 10-bit ∆ΣADC, ADC_DelSig_1, for the digitization
and further processing. The temperature compensated
conductivity and pH data of water along with real temperature
are displayed on smart LCD module, which is connected
off-chip. The LCD is configured by introducing the
on-chip16X2 lines smart LCD block, LCD_Char_1, and it is
directly routed to LCD module via
Fig. 2: The firmware flow for temperature compensated
EC and pH SoC.
149
P2(6:0).
The AMS based PSoC system synthesization ensures the
principle of co-development process of hardware and
software as well. Hence, firmware development is
consequently co-designed in embedded C environment
employing Creator2.1 IDE and its algorithm is depicted by the
flow chart in Fig. 2. Furthermore, initialization and accessing
of all configured IP cores are done through this firmware. On
successful building of the project the .h file is created and
programmed into the PSoC5 device to confirm synthesis of
SoC for measurement of physicochemical parameters, the EC
and pH, of the water.
III. EXPERIMENTAL
The sensor under the investigation provides the analog emf
and is directly proportional to the variation in its respective
parameter. Therefore, the process of calibration and
standardization of the designed SoC is carried out, to obtain
the respective parameters data in terms of respective
engineering units.
A. Calibration to the Temperature
To calibrate the system to temperature in degree
centigrade, the temperature sensor AD590 is exposed from
250C to 500C and respective emf (VT), in mV, on the LCD,
are recorded and plotted against temperature. The graph of
emf VT against applied temperature is shown in Fig. 3. Then
statistical method of regression is employed and the recorded
data is best fitted to the straight line. The expression resulted
is
T in 0C = 0.9553 VT–1.9157 ---1
This expression 1 is deployed in the firmware for
continuous display of temperature data. The designed SoC is
standardized to temperature in 0C. For standardization the
digital thermometer from Hanna Instruments, USA is used. It
is implemented to measure the temperature of the water under
the investigation. This temperature data is also utilized to
achieve temperature compensated EC and pH of the water
under the investigation.
B. Calibration to the Electrical Conductivity
The literature survey reveals that, the engineering unit of
the EC is μS/cm and to calibrate the system under the
investigation to this unit, it was exposed to the continuous
domain of different standard buffer solution, KCl,
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 Synthesis of AMS Based System-on-Chip for Measurement of Physicochemical Parameters of Water

having conductivity ranging from 81 µS/cm to 2230µS/cm

[3,13]. The KCl solutions are also exposed by Hanna make
USA. The standard EC meter HI 991300, Hanna make, is
employed for conductivity measurement. The observed
conductivity dependent emf, VEC, shown by the system under
investigation and corresponding EC shown by Hanna meter
are recorded and plotted in Fig. 4. It is found that the graph of
emf against EC is non-linear within the range of investigation.
Such nature of the plot is also reported by the investigators
[3]. Therefore, on regression the curve is best fitted to the
polynomial of the order three and the expression is with four,
a, b, c and d, coefficients as

EC = a(VEC)3- b(VEC)2+c(VEC)-d ---2 Furthermore, the uncompensated conductivity is linearly

Where, the values of these coefficient are a = 1×10-4, b =
1.93×10-2, c = 4.1945 and d = 48.859. This expression 2 is
utilized in the firmware to calibrate the system under the
investigation to µS/cm unit and standardize it at room
temperature.
However, it is found that, EC is temperature dependent
parameter. Therefore, to ensure the temperature compensated
conductivity data the present system under the investigation is
introduced for the same purpose and the expression for the
dependence of the EC on temperature is incorporated in the
firmware [14] as.
ECTComp = EC(1/(1+0.0203(T – 27))) ---3
Where, ECTComp is the temperature compensated
conductivity of the water and T is temperature in 0C.
increases with increase in temperature, within the range of
investigation. Temperature compensated conductivity data
shown by present SoC remains constant over the range of
investigation. Hence, it can be said that, the SoC under
investigation also provides the temperature compensation on
EC values.
C. Calibration to the pH Scale
For the calibration of the system to pH unit, it is found that,
two or three point calibration process is recommended [15].
However, for calibration of the SoC under the investigation
two point calibration process is adopted. Employing the
buffer tablets, Fisher Scientific make, of 4 pH and 7 pH, the
buffer solutions is prepared [16]. The pH dependent emf, VpH,
developed by the SoC under the investigation at room
temperature for these buffer solutions are recorded and
plotted in Fig. 6. On the process of regression, the recorded
data is best fitted to straight line. The empirical relation
obtained is

pH = (0.0177 × VpH) + 0.3261 ---4

This expression 4 is deployed in the firmware to get the pH
value at room temperature continuously. Thus, SoC under the
investigation is calibrated to the pH unit.

The temperature compensated EC data is resulted by

executing this expression 3 in the firmware. Thus, this SoC is
also standardized to temperature compensated EC
measurements. Moreover, this SoC is implemented for
measurement of temperature compensated electrical
conductivity of various samples of the water and results are
On intensive study, it is found that the Nernst equation
interpreted. To validate the design and to ensure investigation
depicts the temperature dependency of the pH of the water
of temperature compensated EC measurement, the SoC is
under the investigation [17] and this Nernst equation is
subjected to measure the conductivity for variable
reduced to determine the temperature compensated pH
temperature. The observation of compensated and
values, pHTComp, of the water as
uncompensated EC for tubewell water is recorded from the
pHTComp = (VpHT – 0.00019841×T×pH)/56.16 ---5
SoC under the investigation and presented in the Fig. 5.On
Where, VpHT is the emf at temperature T in mV,
inspection of the Fig.5, it is found that, SoC under
investigation precisely gives the values of both compensated
and uncompensated EC of the tube well water.
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ICDSIP | March 07-08, 2017 International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
MIT, Aurangabad (Maharashtra) India ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6, Issue-ICDSIP17, March 2017
T is the temperature in Kelvin and 59.16 mV/T is the
standard coefficient, called Nernst factor.
This expression 5 is deployed in the firmware to produce
temperature compensated pH value. Thus, the SoC under the
investigation is ready to measure the temperature
compensated pH values of the water. Furthermore, this SoC is
implemented to record the temperature compensated as well
as uncompensated pH values for buffer solution of 7 pH. The
graph of pH value against temperature 0C is shown in Fig. 7. It
Is observed that, as the temperature progresses the values
of the pH decreases, similar trend is also reported in [18]. The
decrease in this pH values may be attributed to the ionic
dissociation at high temperature. The temperature
compensated pH values against temperature are almost
remain constant within range of investigation. Therefore, the
SoC under investigation also provides the temperature
compensation on pH values very precisely.
III. CONCLUSION
The System-on-Chip (SoC) based on the Analog Mixed
Signal (AMS) technology is sysnthesized successfully for the
measurement of physicochemical parameters, the temperature
compensated Electrical Conductivity (EC) and pH, of water.
The SoC is calibrated to the respective engineering units of
the parameters. From results of implementation, it can be
concluded that the present SoC measures EC and pH values
very precisely. This can be implemented for in-situ
measurements.
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S. K. Tilekar completed his M. Phil. and
Ph.D. from Solapur University, Solapur
(India). The area of research is Embedded
technology, VLSI design and technology,
Mixed signal SoC design. Presently, he is
working as Associate Professor at Shankarrao
Mohite College, Akluj, Dist. Solapur. He
awarded with best paper presentation award at
Research Festival and conferences, two times.
He presented 78 research papers in International & National level
conferences. He published 13 papers in International Journal. He completed
2 research projects. He worked as resource person and delivered the invited
presentation in National level conferences.
S. C. Pathan is research scholar working
for Ph. D. degree in Electronics. He obtained
master degree from Solapur University,
Solapur. His area of research is Embedded
technology, Wireless Sensor Network and
Instrumentation designing for high tech
process industries. He awarded with best paper
presentation award at Research Festival, two
times, organized by Solapur University,
Solapur. He presented 15 research papers in National level conferences. He
published 05 papers in International Journal.
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 Synthesis of AMS Based System-on-Chip for Measurement of Physicochemical Parameters of Water

P. V. Mane-Deshmukh is research
scholar working for Ph. D. degree in
Electronics. He obtained master degree
from Solapur University, Solapur. His area
of research is Embedded technology,
Wireless Sensor Network and
Instrumentation designing for high tech
process industries. He awarded with best
paper presentation award at Research
Festival, five times, organized by Solapur University, Solapur. He presented
33 research papers in National level conferences. He published 06 papers in
International Journal.

S. V. Chavan is research scholar

working for Ph. D. degree in Electronics.
He obtained master degree from Shivaji
University, Kolhapur. His area of research
is Embedded technology, Wireless Sensor
Network and Instrumentation designing for
high tech process industries. He awarded
with best paper presentation award at
Research Festival, five times, organized by
Solapur University, Solapur. He presented 12 research papers in National
level conferences. He published 03 papers in International Journal.

B. P. Ladgaonkar is the Head of Post

Graduate department of Electronics,
Shankarrao Mohite College, Akluj, Dist.
Solapur (India). He is recognized guide in
Electronics and Physics as well. The areas of
research are Embedded technology,
Instrumentation designing for high tech
agriculture, Sensor materials, VLSI design
and technology, Mixed signal SoC design.
He guided 4 M. Phil. students. Presently, 7
students for Ph.D. and 5 students for M.phil. are working under his guidance
and two students are awarded Ph.D. degree. More than 35 International and
50 National level publications are in his credit. He organized 8 National level
conferences and seminars funded by various institutes. He completed 3
research projects. He worked as resource person and delivered the invited
presentation in National level conferences. He has undertaken UGC, New
Delhi sponsored Major Research Project base on Wireless Sensor Network.

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