Compact Thermal Diffusivity Sensors for On-Chip Thermal Management

Today’s systems-on-chip (SOCs) and microprocessors are complex systems that require multiple temperature sensors to monitor temperature variations in multiple spots on a single silicon die. For such thermal management applications, specialized compact and fast temperature sensors are required. This is necessary because executing an intensive...

Compact Thermal-Diffusivity-Based Temperature Sensors in 40-nm CMOS for SoC Thermal Monitoring

An array of temperature sensors based on the thermal diffusivity (TD) of bulk silicon has been realized in a standard 40-nm CMOS process. In each TD sensor, a highly digital voltage-controlled oscillator-based Σ Δ ADC digitizes the temperature-dependent phase shift of an electrothermal filter (ETF). A phase calibration scheme is used to...

Analysis and Design of VCO-Based Phase-Domain ΣΔ Modulators

VCO-based phase-domain ΣΔ modulators employ the combination of a voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) and an up/down counter to replace the analog loop filter used in conventional ΣΔ modulators. Thanks to this highly digital architecture, they can be quite compact, and are expected to shrink even further with CMOS scaling. This paper describes...