Next generation CMOS temperature sensors

Abstract

Today, CMOS Temperature sensors are predominantly based on parasitic bipolar junction transistors (BJTs). This is because such sensors can achieve high accuracy (< 0.1C error) after a single room-temperature calibration. Although resistor-based temperature sensors can achieve higher resolution and energy-efficiency, they usually require multi-point calibration to reach similar levels of accuracy. In a recent breakthrough, we have discovered that temperature sensors based on silicided poly resistors are an exception to this rule. Two temperature sensor architectures will be presented that use such resistors to achieve good accuracy (<0.2C) after a one or two-point calibration, as well as state-of-the-art energy-efficiency and resolution.