Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory
Department of Microelectronics

MSc van Vroonhoven

PhD student
Electronic Instrumentation (EI), Department of Microelectronics

PhD thesis (Dec 2015): Integrated Temperature Sensors based on Heat Diffusion
Promotor: Kofi Makinwa

Themes: Precision Analog

Biography

Caspar van Vroonhoven was born in The Hague, The Netherlands in April 1983. Soon after, he took apart the baby intercom, was gifted his first soldering iron and became an amateur radio operator. His original passion suppressed by puberty and adolescence, it took until May 2007 before he received his M.Sc. / ir. Degree from Delft University of Technology. His graduation project at the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory was on integrated temperature sensors based on Electrothermal Filters. Supported by National Semiconductor Cooperation (later Texas Instruments), he continued this research towards his Ph.D. degree at the same laboratory.
His research has led to several patent applications and been recognized through several awards, among them the Transducers 2011 Outstanding Paper Award and the ISSCC 2008 Jan van Vessem Award for Outstanding European Paper

After finishing his laboratory work at University in December 2011, he joined Texas Instruments in
Freising, Germany in February 2012, where he worked on isolated current sensing as an analog
design engineer. Since November 2013, he is working as a design engineer for Linear Technology in Ismaning, Germany.

Publications

  1. Multiple electrothermal-filter device
    K.A.A. Makinwa; C.P.L Van Vroonhoven;
    Patent, US 8,870,454, October 2014.

  2. An SOI thermal-diffusivity-based temperature sensor with ±0.6 °C (3σ) untrimmed inaccuracy from -70 °C to 225 °C
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    Sensors and Actuators A: Physical: an international journal devoted to research and development of physical and chemical transducers,
    Volume 188, pp. 66-74, 2012. harvest.

  3. A ±0.4°C (3σ) -70 to 200°C time-domain temperature sensor based on heat diffusion in Si and SiO2
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; D. d'Aquino; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In L Fujino (Ed.), Digest of Technical Papers - 2012 IEEE International Solid-state Circuits Conference,
    IEEE, pp. 204-206, February 2012. Harvest Article number: 6176976.

  4. Thermal Diffusivity Sensing: A New Temperature Sensing Paradigm
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In R Patel; T Andre; A Khan (Ed.), 2011 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference,
    IEEE, pp. 1-6, 2011.

  5. A 25mW Smart CMOS Sensor for Wind and Temperature Measurement
    J. Wu; C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; Y. Chae; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In E Lewis; T Kenny (Ed.), Proceedings IEEE Sensors 2011,
    IEEE, pp. 1261-1264, 2011.

  6. An SOI thermal-diffusivity-based temperature sensor with ±0.6°C (3σ) untrimmed inaccuracy from -70°C to 170°C
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In S. Xia; M. Bao; L-S Fan (Ed.), 16th International Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS 2011),
    IEEE, pp. 2887-2890, 2011.

  7. A 50mW CMOS wind sensor with ±4% speed and ±2° direction error
    J. Wu; Y. Chae; C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In A Chandrakasan; {Gass et al}, W (Ed.), Digest of Technical Papers - 2011 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference,
    IEEE, pp. 106-108, February 2011.

  8. Phase readout of thermal conductivity-based gas sensors
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; G. de Graaf; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In {De Venuto}, D; L Benini (Ed.), 4th IEEE International Workshop on Advances in Sensors and Interfaces (IWASI),
    IEEE, pp. 199-202, 2011.

  9. Synchronous phase detection circuit
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    Patent, US 8,013,636, September 2011.

  10. A thermal-diffusivity-based temperature sensor with an untrimmed inaccuracy of 0.2degess C (3 sigma) from -55 to 125 degrees C.
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; D. d'Aquino; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In s.n. (Ed.), Digest of ISSCC,
    ISSCC, pp. 314-315, 2010.

  11. CMOS temperature sensors based on thermal diffusion
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; S.M. Kashmiri; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    s.n. (Ed.);
    Sense of Contact 2009, , pp. 1-4, 2009.

  12. Linearization of a thermal diffusivity based temperature sensor
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    s.n. (Ed.);
    IEEE Sensors, , pp. 1697-1700, 2009.

  13. CMOS temperature sensors based on thermal diffusion
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; S.M. Kashmiri; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In s.n. (Ed.), Proceedings of the international workshop on thermal investigations of ICs and systems,
    Therminic 2009, pp. 140-143, 2009.

  14. A CMOS temperature-to-digital converter with an inaccuracy of +_ 0.5degree celsius (3 ) from -55 to 125 degree celsius
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In {K.Pagiamztis L.C. Fujino, M.Amiri, G.Gulak}, S.Mirabbasi; R.Specner (Ed.), Proceedings of ISSCC 2008,
    ISSCC, pp. 576,577-637, 2008.

  15. Thermal diffusivity sensors for wide-range temperature sensing
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; K.A.A. Makinwa;
    In s.n. (Ed.), Proceedings of IEEE Sensors 2008,
    IEEE Sensors, pp. 764-767, 2008.

  16. Electronic biosensor arrangement
    C. Nohammer; C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; D. Rocha Wiese Meneses; M.J. Vellekoop;
    2007. NEO, aanvrager: Austrian Research Centers GMBH, Wien; WO/2007/131255 A1; NEO, aanvrager: Austrian Research Centers GMBH, Wien.

  17. Electronische Biosensoranordnung
    C. Nohammer; C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; D. Rocha Wiese Meneses; M.J. Vellekoop;
    2007. NEO, aanvrager: Austrian Research Centers GMBH, Wien; A 830/2006; NEO, aanvrager: Austrian Research Centers GMBH, Wien.

  18. Sigma-delta read-out architectures for electrothermal filters
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven;
    PhD thesis, Delft University of Technology, 2007.

  19. A readout circuit foir capacitive biosensors with integrated SAR A/D conversion
    C.P.L. van Vroonhoven; D. Rocha; M.J. Vellekoop; C. Nohammer;
    In s.n. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2006 ISCAS Conference,
    IEEE, pp. 1-4, 2006. geen affiliatie TUD.

BibTeX support

Last updated: 22 Dec 2025

Caspar van Vroonhoven

Alumnus
  • Left in 2015