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...

A 6800-μ m² Resistor-Based Temperature Sensor with ±0.35 °c (3σ) Inaccuracy in 180-nm CMOS

This paper describes a compact resistor-based temperature sensor that has been realized in a 180-nm CMOS process. It occupies only 6800 μ m², thanks to the use of a highly digital voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)-based phase-domain sigma-delta modulator, whose loop filter consists of a compact digital counter. Despite its small...

Integrated Temperature Sensors based on Heat Diffusion

This thesis describes the theory, design and implementation of a new class of integrated temperature sensors, based on heat diffusion. In such sensors, temperature is sensed by measuring the time it takes for heat to diffuse through silicon. An on-chip thermal delay can be determined by geometry and the thermal diffusivity of silicon, and since...

A Temperature-to-Digital Converter Based on an Optimized Electrothermal Filter

This paper describes the design of a CMOS temperature-to-digital converter (TDC). It operates by measuring the temperature-dependent phase shift of an electrothermal filter (ETF). Compared to previous work, this TDC employs an ETF whose layout has been optimized to minimize the thermal phase spread caused by lithographic inaccuracy. To minimize...