JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science

The Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers (대한전자공학회)
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A CMOS-based Temperature Sensor with Subthreshold Operation for Low-voltage and Low-power On-chip Thermal Monitoring

  • Na, Jun-Seok (Department of Electronics Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Shin, Woosul (Department of Electronics Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Kwak, Bong-Choon (Department of Electronics Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Hong, Seong-Kwan (Department of Electronics Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Kwon, Oh-Kyong (Department of Electronics Engineering, Hanyang University)
  • Received : 2016.10.17
  • Accepted : 2017.01.15
  • Published : 2017.02.28
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Abstract

A CMOS-based temperature sensor is proposed for low-voltage and low-power on-chip thermal monitoring applications. The proposed temperature sensor converts a proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT) current to a PTAT frequency using an integrator and hysteresis comparator. In addition, it operates in the subthreshold region, allowing reduced power consumption. The proposed temperature sensor was fabricated in a standard 90 nm CMOS technology. Measurement results of the proposed temperature sensor show a temperature error of between -0.81 and $+0.94^{\circ}C$ in the temperature range of 0 to $70^{\circ}C$ after one-point calibration at $30^{\circ}C$, with a temperature coefficient of $218Hz/^{\circ}C$. Moreover, the measured energy of the proposed temperature sensor is 36 pJ per conversion, the lowest compared to prior works.

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References

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