Distributed spintronic/cmos sensor network for thermal aware systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021247239-A1
Application number	US-202016787681-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 11, 2020
Priority date	Feb 11, 2020
Publication date	Aug 12, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

A hybrid integrated thermal sensor device includes a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) device electrically coupled in series with at least one CMOS transistor and disposed between a voltage rail terminal and a ground terminal. An output terminal is electrically coupled to a drain of the at least one CMOS transistor. The MTJ operates in an anti-parallel state and the output terminal provides a voltage indicative of a temperature of the MTJ device based on an MTJ antiparallel resistance. A distributed sensor network for real-time thermal mapping of an integrated circuit (IC) is also described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A hybrid integrated thermal sensor device comprising:
a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) device electrically coupled in series with at least one CMOS transistor and disposed between a voltage rail terminal and a ground terminal, and an output terminal electrically coupled to a drain of said at least one CMOS transistor; and wherein said MTJ operates in an anti-parallel state and said output terminal provides a voltage indicative of a temperature of said MTJ device based on an MTJ antiparallel resistance.

2 . The hybrid integrated thermal sensor device of claim 1 , comprising said MTJ disposed between a ground terminal and a source terminal of said at least one CMOS transistor, and a second CMOS transistor is disposed between a drain terminal of said at least one CMOS transistor and voltage rail.

3 . The hybrid integrated thermal sensor device of claim 2 , wherein said at least one CMOS transistor comprises a common source amplifier.

4 . The hybrid integrated thermal sensor device of claim 2 , wherein said second CMOS transistor comprises an active load.

5 . The hybrid integrated thermal sensor device of claim 4 , wherein said active load comprises a PMOS based current source.

6 . The hybrid integrated thermal sensor device of claim 1 , further comprising an enable terminal electrically coupled to a gate of at least one CMOS transistor.

7 . The hybrid integrated thermal sensor device of claim 1 , wherein said output terminal is electrically coupled to a first input terminal of a comparator, and a second input of said comparator is electrically coupled to a settable reference voltage.

8 . The hybrid integrated thermal sensor device of claim 7 , wherein said hybrid integrated thermal sensor device operates as a one bit digital thermal sensor with a settable threshold temperature.

9 . The hybrid integrated thermal sensor device of claim 7 , wherein said comparator further comprises a sensor amplifier enable (SAEN) terminal electrically coupled to said comparator.

10 . A distributed sensor network for real-time thermal mapping of an integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
a control unit disposed in said IC; a plurality of hybrid MTJ/CMOS integrated thermal sensor devices electrically coupled to said control unit; and wherein said control unit reads of each said hybrid MTJ/CMOS integrated thermal sensor devices to generate substantially in real-time, a thermal map of said IC.

11 . The distributed sensor network of claim 10 , wherein said plurality of hybrid MTJ/CMOS integrated thermal sensor devices comprises more than about 100 devices.

12 . The distributed sensor network of claim 10 , wherein said plurality of hybrid MTJ/CMOS integrated thermal sensor devices comprise one bit digital thermal sensors with a plurality of same or different settable threshold temperatures.

13 . The distributed sensor network of claim 12 , further comprising a multiplexer circuit to switch a reference between different voltages to vary said settable threshold temperature said one bit digital thermal sensors.

14 . The distributed sensor network of claim 10 , wherein said plurality of hybrid MTJ/CMOS integrated thermal sensor devices are configured in a grid based topology of m×n sensor nodes of m columns and n row.

15 . The distributed sensor network of claim 12 , wherein said thermal map comprises nodes below or above a threshold setting of each of said hybrid MTJ/CMOS integrated thermal sensor devices.

16 . The distributed sensor network of claim 12 , wherein each of said plurality of hybrid MTJ/CMOS integrated thermal sensor devices is sequentially enabled and read by said control unit.

17 . The distributed sensor network of claim 12 , wherein said control unit or a different control unit of said IC dynamically manages at least one system of said IC based on said thermal map to mitigate deterioration of a lifetime of said IC or a reliability of said IC.

18 . The distributed sensor network of claim 10 , wherein said control unit, or a different control unit, dynamically configures substantially in real-time at least one logic module or at least one memory module of said IC based on said thermal map of said IC.

19 . The distributed sensor network of claim 18 , wherein based on said thermal map, said control unit, or said different control unit dynamically moves execution of a logic or an execution of a memory function from one module to a different similar function module of said IC dynamically in time to balance a thermal load between modules or to prevent an overheating of a module.

20 . The distributed sensor network of claim 18 , wherein based on said thermal map, said control unit, or said different control unit, dynamically reconfigures said IC to optimize a thermal condition of said IC.

Assignees

• Univ Rochester

Inventors

• Qoutb Abdelrahman G
• Friedman Eby G

Classifications

• G01K3/005

  Circuits arrangements for indicating a predetermined temperature (fire detection G08B17/00) · CPC title

• G01K2213/00

  Temperature mapping · CPC title

• G01K7/01 Primary

  using semiconducting elements having PN junctions (G01K7/02, G01K7/16, G01K7/30 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01K1/026 Primary

  arrangements for monitoring a plurality of temperatures, e.g. by multiplexing · CPC title

• G01K7/16

  using resistive elements · CPC title