Small area high performance cell-based thermal diode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9383264-B2
Application number	US-201213428549-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 23, 2012
Priority date	Jan 31, 2012
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

A thermal sensing system includes a circuit having a layout including standard cells arranged in rows and columns. First and second current sources provide first and second currents, respectively. The thermal sensing system includes thermal sensing units, first and second switching modules, and an analog to digital converter (ADC). Each thermal sensing unit is configured to provide a voltage drop dependent on a temperature at that thermal sensing unit. The first switching module is configured to select one of the thermal sensing units. The second switching module includes at least one switch controllable by a control signal. The at least one switch is configured to selectively couple the thermal sensing units, based on the control signal, to one of the first and second current sources, via the first switching module. The ADC is configured to convert an analog voltage, provided by the selected thermal sensing unit, to a digital value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a global current switching module including:
a first current source for providing a first current,
a second current source for providing a second current different than the first current,
at least one first switch controllable by at least one control signal, the at least one first switch configured to couple the first current source to a node of the global current switching module during a first phase and to couple the second current source to the node of the global switching module during a second phase, and
at least one second switch coupled to the node of the global current switching module; and

a plurality of local devices each including a single transistor, each local device being selectively coupled to the node of the global current switching module through the at least one second switch, each local device disposed at a different location on an integrated circuit chip and configured to provide, at the node of the global current switching module, a voltage dependent on the temperature at the respective local device in response to being coupled to the node of the global current switching module through the at least one second switch,
wherein the voltage provided by each local device when coupled to the node comprises a first voltage generated during the first phase when the first current source is coupled to the node and a second voltage generated during the second phase when the second current source is coupled to the node.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one first switch includes a single pole double throw (SPDT) switch.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one switch includes a pair of single throw switches coupled to the first and second current sources, respectively.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control signal is a periodic binary signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first and second phases have unequal durations.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the first phase is longer than the second phase.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more devices is coupled to a local ground line of a standard cell of a circuit.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the width of the one or more devices in a circuit layout is an integer multiple of the width of a standard cell of a circuit.

9. An apparatus comprising:
a global current switching module including:
a first current source for providing a first current,
a second current source for providing a second current different than the first current,
at least one first switch controllable by a control signal, the at least one first switch configured to couple the first current source to a first node of the global current switching module during a first phase and to couple the second current source to the first node of the global current switching module during a second phase, and
at least one second switch coupled to the first node of the global current switching module; and

a plurality of local devices, each local device coupled to the at least one second switch of the global current switching module, each local device disposed at a different location on an integrated circuit chip and configured to provide, at the first node of the global current switching module by way of the at least one second switch, a voltage dependent on the temperature at the respective local device,
wherein the at least one second switch is configured to couple a selected one of the plurality of local devices to the first node in response to a select signal received at the at least one second switch,
wherein the voltage provided by each local device when coupled to the first node comprises a first voltage generated during the first phase when the first current source is coupled to the node and a second voltage generated during the second phase when the second current source is coupled to the node.

Assignees

• Peng Yung-Chow
• Chang Ching-Ho
• Huang Jui-Cheng
• Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg Co Ltd

Inventors

• Peng Yung-Chow
• Chang Ching-Ho
• Huang Jui-Cheng

Classifications

• Y10T307/76

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G01K7/01 Primary

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