A High-Speed Temperature Sensor with Low Supply Sensitivity for SoC Thermal Monitoring

Abstract

A high-speed low-supply-sensitivity temperature sensor is presented for thermal monitoring of system on a chip (SoC). The proposed sensor transforms the temperature to complementary to absolute temperature (CTAT) frequency and then into digital code. A CTAT voltage reference supplies a temperature-sensitive ring oscillator, which enhances temperature sensitivity and conversion rate. To reduce the supply sensitivity, an operational amplifier with a unity gain for power supply is proposed. A frequency-to-digital converter with piecewise linear fitting is used to convert the frequency into the digital code corresponding to temperature and correct nonlinearity. These additional characteristics are distinct from the conventional oscillator-based temperature sensors. The sensor is fabricated in a 180[Formula: see text]nm CMOS process and occupies a small area of 0.048[Formula: see text]mm2 excluding bondpads. After a one-point calibration, the sensor achieves an inaccuracy of [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]1.5[Formula: see text]C from [Formula: see text]45[Formula: see text]C to 85[Formula: see text]C under a supply voltage of 1.4–2.4[Formula: see text]V showing a worst-case supply sensitivity of 0.5[Formula: see text]C/V. The sensor maintains a high conversion rate of 45[Formula: see text]KS/s with a fine resolution of 0.25[Formula: see text]C/LSB, which is suitable for SoC thermal monitoring. Under a supply voltage of 1.8[Formula: see text]V, the maximum energy consumption per conversion is only 7.8[Formula: see text]nJ at [Formula: see text]45[Formula: see text]C.