DLL-based temperature sensor
AssigneeCavium Networks, Inc.
InventorsScott Meninger, Kyoungho Woo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A temperature sensor includes an open-loop delay line comprising plural delay cells and a multiplexer configured to select a first number of the plural delay cells; a delay-locked loop comprising plural delay cells and a multiplexer configured to select a second number of the plural delay cells; a clock coupled to an input of the open-loop delay line and to an input of the delay-locked loop; a detector having a first input coupled to an output of the open-loop delay line and a second input coupled to an output of the delay-locked loop; and a finite state machine configured to detect a transition in the output of the phase detector.
Claims10
A temperature sensor comprising:
- an open-loop delay line comprising plural delay cells and a multiplexer configured to select a first number of the plural delay cells;
- a delay-locked loop comprising plural delay cells and a multiplexer configured to select a second number of the plural delay cells;
- a clock coupled to an input of the open-loop delay line and to an input of the delay-locked loop;
- a phase detector having a first input coupled to an output of the open-loop delay line and a second input coupled to an output of the delay-locked loop;
- and
- a finite state machine configured to detect a transition in the output of the phase detector.
A method comprising:
- coupling a clock signal to an input of an open-loop delay line and to an input of a delay-locked loop, the open-loop delay line comprising plural delay cells and a multiplexer configured to select a first number of the plural delay cells, the delay-locked loop comprising plural delay cells and a multiplexer configured to select a second number of the plural delay cells;
- coupling a first input of a phase detector to an output of the open-loop delay line;
- coupling a second input of the phase detector to an output of the delay-locked loop;
- and
- detecting a transition in the output of the phase detector indicative of an environment temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.