Miniaturized digital temperature sensor
AssigneeBirad—Research & Development Company Ltd.
InventorsOri Bass, Joseph Shor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sensor circuit includes a bandgap reference circuit (BGREF) that produces two outputs, a temperature dependent output and a reference voltage, which does not change with temperature. The temperature dependent output includes a PTAT (proportional to absolute temperature, rising with increased temperature) portion and a CTAT (complementary to absolute temperature, falling with increased temperature) portion. Circuitry is provided that calculates the reference voltage by adding the PTAT portion and a divided version of the CTAT portion in which the CTAT portion has been divided by a divisor.
Claims7
A temperature sensor circuit comprising:
- two temperature dependent voltages, one of which is a PTAT voltage, which is proportional to absolute temperature, rising with increased temperature, and another of which is a CTAT voltage, which is complementary to absolute temperature, falling with increased temperature;
- and
- circuitry that calculates the temperature by adding said PTAT voltage and a divided version of said CTAT voltage in which said CTAT voltage has been divided by a divisor, wherein said CTAT voltage comprises Vbe (base-emitter voltage) and said PTAT voltage comprises dVbe, and the Vbe and dVbe voltages are generated by a single bipolar junction transistor (BJT).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.