System, apparatus and method for accurate measurement of off-chip temperature

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10823693-B2
Application number	US-201815861953-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 4, 2018
Priority date	Jan 4, 2018
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

In an embodiment, an integrated circuit includes: a switched capacitor coupled between a supply voltage node and a divider node, where a thermistor external to the integrated circuit is to couple to the divider node; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the divider node to receive a voltage at the divider node and generate a digital value based thereon; and a controller coupled to the ADC to determine a temperature associated with the thermistor based at least in part on the digital value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An integrated circuit comprising:
a switched capacitor coupled between a supply voltage node and a divider node, wherein a thermistor external to the integrated circuit is to couple to the divider node;
an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) having an input coupled to the divider node to receive a voltage at the divider node and generate a digital value based thereon; and
a controller coupled to receive the digital value from the ADC, wherein the controller is to determine a temperature associated with the thermistor based at least in part on the digital value.

2. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the controller is to calculate a resistance of the thermistor based at least in part on the digital value and a value of a supply voltage provided to the supply voltage node.

3. The integrated circuit of claim 2 , wherein the controller is to calculate the resistance of the thermistor further based on an equivalent resistance of the switched capacitor.

4. The integrated circuit of claim 3 , wherein the equivalent resistance of the switched capacitor is based on a capacitance of the switched capacitor and a frequency of switching of the switched capacitor.

5. The integrated circuit of claim 4 , further comprising a frequency synthesizer to generate a first clock signal.

6. The integrated circuit of claim 5 , wherein the frequency synthesizer is to receive an input clock signal from an oscillator coupled to the integrated circuit and generate the first clock signal using the input clock signal.

7. The integrated circuit of claim 6 , wherein the controller is to compensate for a temperature variation of the oscillator based on the temperature associated with the thermistor, the thermistor thermally coupled to the oscillator.

8. The integrated circuit of claim 4 , further comprising a frequency divider to generate the switching frequency based on a first clock signal received from an oscillator.

9. The integrated circuit of claim 8 , further comprising a temperature sensor to measure a temperature of the integrated circuit.

10. The integrated circuit of claim 9 , wherein the controller is to control the frequency divider to generate the switching frequency based at least in part on the temperature of the integrated circuit.

11. The integrated circuit of claim 3 , wherein the controller is to cause the equivalent resistance of the switched capacitor to be updated if the voltage at the divider node is outside of a predetermined range.

12. The integrated circuit of claim 3 , wherein the controller is to cause the equivalent resistance of the switched capacitor to at least substantially track the resistance of the thermistor.

13. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the controller, based at least in part on the temperature, is to control a capacitance of an oscillator to compensate for a temperature variation of the oscillator.

14. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , further comprising a selection circuit to selectively couple a plurality of thermistors external to the integrated circuit to the divider node.

15. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions that when executed enable a system to perform a method comprising:
controlling, by a controller of a semiconductor die, a first switch and a second switch to operate at a first switching frequency to cause a switched capacitor adapted on the semiconductor die to be switchably coupled between a first node and a second node;
coupling a thermistor to the second node, the thermistor external to the semiconductor die;
measuring a voltage at the second node when the thermistor is coupled to the second node;
calculating, by the controller, a resistance of the thermistor based on a voltage of the first node, the voltage at the second node, and a resistance of the switched capacitor; and
determining, by the controller, a temperature of the thermistor using the resistance of the thermistor.

16. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises determining a temperature of the semiconductor die and based at least in part thereon, changing the first switching frequency to a second switching frequency.

17. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises compensating for a frequency shift of an oscillator coupled to the semiconductor die based on the temperature of the thermistor, the oscillator thermally coupled with the thermistor.

18. A system comprising:
an antenna to receive and provide a radio frequency (RF) signal to an integrated circuit including a wireless transceiver;
a crystal oscillator to provide a reference clock signal to the integrated circuit;
a thermistor thermally coupled with the crystal oscillator; and
the integrated circuit comprising:
a frequency synthesizer to receive the reference clock signal and generate one or more clock signals using the reference clock signal;
a switched capacitor coupled between a supply voltage node and a divider node, the thermistor to couple to the divider node; and
a controller coupled to the divider node, wherein the controller is to determine a temperature associated with the thermistor based at least in part on a voltage at the divider node and compensate for frequency drift of the reference clock signal based at least in part on the temperature associated with the thermistor.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the controller is to calculate a resistance of the thermistor based on the voltage at the divider node, a value of a supply voltage provided to the supply voltage node, and an equivalent resistance of the switched capacitor, the equivalent resistance of the switched capacitor based on a capacitance of the switched capacitor and a frequency of switching of the switched capacitor, wherein the controller is to control the frequency of switching based at least in part on a temperature of the integrated circuit.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the controller is to dynamically control a load capacitance of the crystal oscillator to compensate for the frequency drift.

Assignees

• Silicon Lab Inc

Inventors

• Yoo Euisoo
• Voor Thomas Edward
• Khoury John M

Classifications

• G01K7/24 Primary

  in a specially-adapted circuit, e.g. bridge circuit · CPC title

• H03L1/027

  by using frequency conversion means which is variable with temperature, e.g. mixer, frequency divider, pulse add/subtract logic circuit (H03L1/023, H03L1/026 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01K2219/00

  Thermometers with dedicated analog to digital converters · CPC title

• H03B5/04

  Modifications of generator to compensate for variations in physical values, e.g. power supply, load, temperature · CPC title

• H03L1/022

  by indirect stabilisation, i.e. by generating an electrical correction signal which is a function of the temperature (H03L1/021 takes precedence) · CPC title