An alternative method to monitor and control the IC temperature in the 4.2-77 K range

Abstract

We introduce an alternative to the diode-method to monitor and control the local temperature in CMOS integrated circuits operated at cryogenic temperatures. We use an n-MOS transistor as a thermometer and prove that it has a linear performance in the 4.2 77 K temperature range. The method has been validated with a CMOS inverter fabricated in a 0.7 μm CMOS technology.