Self-calibrated thermal sensors of an integrated circuit die

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9702769-B2
Application number	US-201313915453-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 11, 2013
Priority date	Jun 11, 2013
Publication date	Jul 11, 2017
Grant date	Jul 11, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide self-calibrated thermal sensors of an integrated circuit (IC) die and associated techniques and configurations. In one embodiment, a self-calibrating thermal sensing device includes a resonator configured to oscillate at a frequency corresponding with a temperature of circuitry of an integrated circuit (IC) die, wherein the resonator is thermally coupled with the circuitry and configured to operate in a first mode and a second mode and logic operatively coupled with the resonator, and configured to calculate a first temperature corresponding with a first frequency of the resonator in the first mode using a first equation, calculate a second temperature corresponding with a second frequency of the resonator in the second mode using a second equation, and add an offset to the first equation and the second equation based on a result of a comparison of the first temperature and the second temperature. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A self-calibrating thermal sensing device, the device comprising:
a resonator to oscillate at a frequency corresponding with a temperature of circuitry of an integrated circuit (IC) die, wherein the resonator is disposed on an active side of the die, and thermally coupled with the circuitry to operate in a first mode and a second mode;
an actuation electrode disposed on the die to activate oscillation of the resonator to provide the first mode and the second mode oscillation; and
logic disposed on the die and operatively coupled with the resonator, to
calculate a first temperature of the die corresponding with a first frequency of the resonator in the first mode using a first equation,
calculate a second temperature of the die corresponding with a second frequency of the resonator in the second mode using a second equation, and
add an offset to the first equation and the second equation based on a result of a comparison of the first temperature and the second temperature.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the logic is to further iteratively calculate the first temperature and the second temperature and add the offset to the first temperature and the second temperature until the first temperature and the second temperature are equal or until a difference between the first temperature and the second temperature is minimized or smaller than a pre-determined threshold.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the logic is to further
activate oscillation of the resonator in the first mode,
receive the first frequency of the resonator in the first mode,
activate oscillation of the resonator in the second mode,
receive the second frequency of the resonator in the second mode, and
compare the first temperature and the second temperature to provide the result of the comparison of the first temperature and the second temperature.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the resonator includes an equivalent circuit that includes a resistor, inductor and capacitor coupled with each other in series or parallel, or combinations thereof.

5. The device of claim 1 , further comprising:
an amplifier coupled with the resonator in a positive feedback configuration, wherein the amplifier is to excite oscillation of the resonator at a frequency corresponding with a resonant frequency of the resonator to provide the first frequency of the resonator in the first mode and the second frequency of the resonator in the second mode; and
an output module coupled with the resonator to output information about the first frequency of the resonator in the first mode and the second frequency of the second mode.

6. The device of claim 5 , further comprising:
a power control unit (PCU) coupled with the output module, the PCU to manage power of the IC die based on the information from the output module.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the first equation includes a lame mode equation; and
the second equation includes an extensional mode equation.

8. An integrated circuit (IC) die comprising:
circuitry that generates heat when in operation;
a resonator thermally coupled with the circuitry to oscillate at a frequency corresponding with a temperature of the circuitry, wherein the resonator is to operate in a first mode and a second mode;
an actuation electrode disposed on the die to activate oscillation of the resonator to provide the first mode and the second mode oscillation; and
logic disposed on the die and operatively coupled with the resonator, to
calculate a first temperature of the circuitry corresponding with a first frequency of the resonator in the first mode using a first equation,
calculate a second temperature of the circuitry corresponding with a second frequency of the resonator in the second mode using a second equation, and
add an offset to the first equation and the second equation based on a result of a comparison of the first temperature and the second temperature.

9. The IC die of claim 8 , further comprising:
an interconnect layer disposed on the circuitry to route electrical signals to or from the circuitry, wherein the resonator is thermally coupled with the circuitry through the interconnect layer, the circuitry includes a transistor device disposed on an active side of the IC die and the resonator is disposed on the active side of the IC die.

10. The IC die of claim 8 , wherein:
the resonator comprises a copper plate coupled with electrodes;
the first mode is activated by out-of-phase biasing of the electrodes; and
the second mode is activated by in-phase biasing of the electrodes.

11. The IC die of claim 8 , wherein:
the IC die includes a processor; and
the logic includes instructions stored in a storage medium of the processor.

12. The IC die of claim 11 , wherein the logic is to calculate the first temperature, calculate the second temperature and add the offset during boot time of the processor, real-time operation of the processor or on a periodic basis.

13. The IC die of claim 12 , wherein the logic is to calculate the first temperature, calculate the second temperature and add the offset during class or assembly thermal calibration of the IC die.

14. A method for calibrating a thermal sensor, the method comprising:
activating, by an actuation electrode disposed on a die, oscillation of a resonator to provide a first mode oscillation wherein the resonator is disposed on an active side of the die;
receiving, by a thermal calibration module coupled with the thermal sensor, a first frequency of the resonator in the first mode;
calculating, by the thermal calibration module, a first temperature of the die corresponding with the first frequency of the resonator in the first mode using a first equation;
activating, by the actuation electrode, oscillation of the resonator to provide a second mode oscillation;
receiving, by the thermal calibration module, a second frequency of the resonator in the second mode;
calculating, by the thermal calibration module, a second temperature of the die corresponding with the second frequency of the resonator in the second mode using a second equation; and
adding, by the thermal calibration module, an offset to the first equation and the second equation based on a result of a comparison of the first temperature and the second temperature.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
iteratively performing the receiving the first frequency of the resonator in the first mode, calculating the first temperature, receiving the second frequency of the resonator in the second mode, calculating the second temperature and adding the offset until the first temperature and the second temperature are equal or until a difference between the first temperature and the second temperature is minimized or smaller than a pre-determined threshold.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
comparing, by the thermal calibration module, the first temperature and the second temperature to provide the result of the comparison of the first temperature and the second temperature.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the thermal calibration module and the thermal sensor are components of a same computing device.

18. A computing device comprising:
a circuit board;
an integrated circuit (IC) die coupled with the circuit board, the IC die including:
circuitry to generate heat when in operation;
a thermal sensor thermally coupled with the circuitry, the thermal sensor including a resonator to oscillate at a frequency corresponding with a temperature of the circuitry, wherei

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Abdelmoneum Mohamed A
• Duarte David E
• Taylor Gregory F

Classifications

• G01K7/00

  Measuring temperature based on the use of electric or magnetic elements directly sensitive to heat (giving results other than momentary value of temperature G01K3/00) {; Power supply therefor, e.g. using thermoelectric elements} · CPC title

• G01K15/005 Primary

  Calibration · CPC title

• G01K7/32

  using change of resonant frequency of a crystal · CPC title