A Temperature-to-Frequency Converter-Based On-Chip Temperature Sensor with an Inaccuracy of +0.65 °C/-0.49 °C

Zicong Xu, Xuan Zhang, Sili Chen, Jia Hao Cheong, Lei Yao

Abstract: This paper proposes a temperature sensor based on temperature-frequency conversion using 180 nm CMOS technology. The temperature sensor consists of a proportional-to-absolute temperature (PTAT) current generating circuit, a relaxation oscillator with oscillation frequency proportional to temperature (OSC-PTAT), a relaxation oscillator with oscillation frequency independent of temperature (OSC-CON), and a divider circuit cascaded with D flip-flops. Using BJT as the temperature sensing module, the sensor has the advantages of high accuracy and high resolution. An oscillator that uses PTAT current to charge and discharge capacitors to achieve oscillation, and utilizes voltage average feedback (VAF) to enhance the frequency stability of the oscillator is tested. Through the dual temperature sensing process with the same structure, the influence of variables such as power supply voltage, device, and process deviation can be reduced to a certain extent. The temperature sensor in this paper was implemented and tested with a temperature measurement range of 0–100 °C, an inaccuracy of +0.65 °C/−0.49 °C after two-point calibration, a resolution of 0.003 °C, a resolution Figure of Merit (FOM) of 6.7 pJ/K2, an area of 0.059 mm2, and a power consumption of 32.9 μW.