Abstract
Differential temperature sensors can be placed in integrated circuits to extract a signature of the power dissipated by the adjacent circuit blocks built in the same silicon die. This review paper first discusses the singularity that differential temperature sensors provide with respect to other sensor topologies, with circuit monitoring being their main application. The paper focuses on the monitoring of radio-frequency analog circuits. The strategies to extract the power signature of the monitored circuit are reviewed, and a list of application examples in the domain of test and characterization is provided. As a practical example, we elaborate the design methodology to conceive, step by step, a differential temperature sensor to monitor the aging degradation in a class-A linear power amplifier working in the 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific Medical—ISM—band. It is discussed how, for this particular application, a sensor with a temperature resolution of 0.02 K and a high dynamic range is required. A circuit solution for this objective is proposed, as well as recommendations for the dimensions and location of the devices that form the temperature sensor. The paper concludes with a description of a simple procedure to monitor time variability.
Highlights
Nowadays, temperature sensors are integrated with high-density digital integrated circuits, such as microprocessors
Temperature sensors are a specific kind of monitor that are especially attractive for high-frequency analog blocks, since they can get information of the power dissipated by Sensors 2019, 19, 4815; doi:10.3390/s19214815
Built-in temperature sensors are an attractive solution to monitor the performance of microelectronic analog circuits, those operating at radio frequencies, because they are electrically non-invasive and because of the intrinsic down-conversion of the high-frequency information to a more relaxed low-frequency domain
Summary
Temperature sensors are integrated with high-density digital integrated circuits, such as microprocessors. The temperature increase sensed near an analog circuit depends on its power dissipation, which has two components: one due to the circuit DC bias, another one due to the AC signal. To perform a structural circuit test in a 2.4 GHz low-noise amplifier [11] All these monitoring capabilities gain importance in nanometric technologies, where yield is severely compromised due to process–temperature—-voltage (PVT) variations [12] and long-time degradation (aging). As a practical application example, the design of a differential temperature sensor to monitor the long-time degradation (aging) of an RF Power Amplifier (PA). 0.35 μm CMOS technology, and the procedure to use such a sensor for aging monitoring
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