Thermal sensors and methods of operating thereof

Abstract

A thermal sensor includes a comparator having first and second input nodes. A reference voltage generator is electrically coupled with the first input node. The reference voltage generator is configured to provide a reference voltage that is substantially temperature-independent. A temperature sensing circuit is electrically coupled with the second input node. The temperature sensing circuit is configured to provide a temperature-dependent voltage. The temperature sensing circuit includes a current mirror. A first metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor is electrically coupled between the current mirror and ground. A first resistor is electrically coupled with the current mirror. A second MOS transistor is electrically coupled with the first resistor in series. The second MOS transistor and the first resistor are electrically coupled with the first MOS transistor in a parallel fashion.

Description

[0001] priority date [0002] This application claims priority to US Patent Application Serial No. 13 / 173,112, filed June 30, 2011, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. [0003] Cross References to Related Applications [0004] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 12 / 764,532, filed April 21, 2010, entitled "PROVIDINGLINERARRELATIONSHIPBETWEENTEMPERATUREANDDIGITALCODE," which in turn claims U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 61 / 171,684, filed April 22, 2009 rights, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. technical field [0005] Embodiments of the present application relate to generating a linear relationship between temperature and digital code. Various embodiments are used for temperature sensors. Background technique [0006] The temperature sensor can be used to monitor the temperature of electronic components such as CPU (Central Processing Unit), GPU (Graphics Pr...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

When the voltage being compared is PTAT, the implementation introduces an inherent DAC code-temperature nonlinearity, and as a result, suffers from poor temperature measurement accuracy unless extensive temperature calibration (e.g., multi-point calibration) is performed

Other methods attempt to make the comparison (or reference) voltage family curves parallel to achieve better DAC code-temperature linearity, but are unsuccessful because the curves are not actually parallel

Therefore, these methods also suffer from poor temperature measurement accuracy

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