CMOS temperature-to-digital converter with digital correction

1. A method for producing a temperature reading using a transistor (Q 1 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, where the base is connected to the collector, and a current path is between the emitter and the collector, the method comprising:

(a) providing a first amount of current (I 1 ) and a second amount of current (I 2 ) to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ), during different time slots of a time period, to thereby produce a first base-emitter voltage (Vbe 1 ) and a second base-emitter voltage (Vbe 2 ), where I 1 =I 2 *M, and M is a known constant;

(b) digitizing analog signals indicative of magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

(c) digitally determining a difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ; and

(d) producing a digital temperature reading (DTR) based on the difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 , wherein step (e) comprises producing the DTR using the following equation:

DTR=K *Data/[ K *Data/(2 ^N )+1]

where K is a constant, Data is an N-bit digital value indicative of the difference between the magnitude of Vbe 1 and the magnitude of Vbe 2 , and N is the number of bits of the Data, which is an integer ≧2.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein I 1 is produced during a first contiguous time slot, and I 2 is produced during a second contiguous time slot the follows the first time slot.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein I 1 is produced during one or more time slots that need not be contiguous, and I 2 is produced during one or more further time slots that need not be contiguous.

4. A method for producing a temperature reading using a transistor (Q 1 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, where the base is connected to the collector, and a current path is between the emitter and the collector, the method comprising:

(a) providing a first amount of current (I 1 ) and a second amount of current (I 2 ) to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ), during different time slots of a time period, to thereby produce a first base-emitter voltage (Vbe 1 ) and a second base-emitter voltage (Vbe 1 ), wherein I 1 is produced by simultaneously and continually turning on M current sources during a first time slot, and I 2 is produced by separately turning on each of the M current sources during different portions of a second time slot that equals the first time slot so that I 1 =I 2 *M, and M is a known constant that is greater than or equal to 2;

(b) digitizing analog signals indicative of magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

(c) digitally determining a difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ; and

(d) producing a digital temperature reading (DTR) based on the difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 .

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein each of the different portions of the second time slot is equal to 1/M th of the first time slot.

6. A method for producing a temperature reading using a transistor (Q 1 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, where the base is connected to the collector, and a current path is between the emitter and the collector, the method comprising:

(a) providing a first amount of current (I 1 ) and a second amount of current (I 2 ) to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ), during different time slots of a time period, to thereby produce a first base-emitter voltage (Vbe 1 ) and a second base-emitter voltage (Vbe 2 ), wherein I 1 is produced by continually turning on a current source during a first time slot, and I 2 is produced by turning on the same current source for only 1M th of a second time slot that equals the first time slot, so that I 1 =I 2 *M, and M is a known constant M;

(b) digitizing analog signals indicative of magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

(c) digitally determining a difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ; and

(d) producing a digital temperature reading (DTR) based on the difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 .

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein step (c) includes using a digital up/down counter to determine a difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 .

8. A method for producing a temperature reading using

a transistor (Q 1 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, where the base is connected to the collector, and a current path is between the emitter and the collector, and

a further transistor (Q 3 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, where the base is connected to the collector, and a current path is between the emitter and the collector,

the method comprising:

(a) providing a first amount of current (I 1 ) and a second amount of current (I 2 ) to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ), during different time slots of a time period, to thereby produce a first base-emitter voltage (Vbe 1 ) and a second base-emitter voltage (Vbe 2 ), where I 1 =I 2 *M, and M is a known constant;

(b) providing a current proportional to absolute temperature (Iptat) to the current path of the further transistor (Q 3 ), to thereby produce a third base-emitter voltage (Vbe 3 );

(c) converting Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 to currents using a voltage-to-current converter that includes a first resistor (R 1 ), to thereby produce analog current signals indicative of the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

(d) converting Vbe 3 to a reference current (Iref) using a further voltage-to-current converter that includes a second resistor (R 2 ), where Iref=Vbe 3 /R 2 ;

(e) digitizing analog current signals indicative of the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 , including using Iref as a reference when digitizing the analog current signals indicative of the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

(f) digitally determining a difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ; and

(g) producing a digital temperature reading (DTR) using the following equation

DTR=K *( R 2 /R 1)*( kT/q )ln( M )/[ K *( R 2 /R 1)*( kT/q )ln( M )+ Vbe 3]*(2 ^N ),

where K is a constant, k is Boltzmann's constant, T is the temperature in degrees Kelvin, q is the electron charge, and N is an integer ≧2, and

wherein the difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 determined at step (f) is used in the equation as the value for (kT/q)ln(M).

9. A method for producing a temperature reading using a transistor (Q 1 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, where the base is connected to the collector, and a current path is between the emitter and the collector, the method comprising:

(a) using one or more current sources and one or more switches to provide a first amount of current (I 1 ) and a second amount of current (I 2 ) to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ), during different time slots of a time period, to thereby produce a first base-emitter voltage (Vbe 1 ) and a second base-emitter voltage (Vbe 2 ), where I 1 =I 2 *M, and M is a known constant, wherein the one or more switches are turned on and off at times that corresponds to transitions of a clock signal;

(b) using a voltage-to-current converter to convert Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 to currents;

(c) turning off a further switch, at the output of the voltage-to-current converter, for short time periods centered about transitions of the clock signal, to reduce effects of charge-injection due to the turning on and off of the one or more switches used to provide I 1 and I 2 to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 );

(d) digitizing analog current signals indicative of magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

(e) digitally determining a difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ; and

(f) producing a digital temperature reading (DTR) based on the difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 .

10. A method for producing a temperature reading using a transistor (Q 1 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, where the base is connected to the collector, and a current path is between the emitter and the collector, the method comprising:

(a) providing a first amount of current (I 1 ) and a second amount of current (I 2 ) to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ), during different time slots of a time period, to thereby produce a first base-emitter voltage (Vbe 1 ) and a second base-emitter voltage (Vbe 2 ), where I 1 =I 2 *M, and M is a known constant;

(b) providing a current proportion to absolute temperature (Iptat) to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ) during one or more further time slots of the time period to thereby produce a third base-emitter voltage (Vbe 3 );

(c) digitizing analog signals indicative of magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

(d) digitally determining a difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ; and

(e) producing a digital temperature reading (DTR) based on the difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 , using the following equation

DTR=K *( kT/q )ln( M )/[ K *( kT/q )ln( M )+ Vbe 3]*(2 ^N ),

where K is a constant, k is Boltzmann's constant, T is the temperature in degrees Kelvin, q is the electron charge, and N is an integer >2, and

wherein the difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 determined at step (d) is used in the equation as the value for (kT/q)ln(M).

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the transistor (Q 1 ) was produced using a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) process, a complementary-metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process or a BJT/BiCMOS process.

12. A method for producing a temperature reading using a transistor (Q 1 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, with a resistor (R 3 ) and a switch (S 1 ) connected in parallel between the base and the collector, and the collector connected to ground, the method comprising:

(a) providing a first amount of current (I 1 ) and a second amount of current (I 2 ) to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ), during different time slots of a time period, to thereby produce a first base-emitter voltage (Vbe 1 ) and a second base-emitter voltage (Vbe 2 ), where I 1 =I 2 *M, and M is a known constant;

(b) digitizing analog signals indicative of magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

(c) digitally determining a difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ; and

(d) producing a digital temperature reading (DTR) based on the difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

wherein step (a) also includes

closing the switch (S 1 ) while I 1 is provided to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ); and

opening the switch (S 1 ) while I 2 is provided to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ).

13. The method of claim 4 , wherein M is greater than or equal to 3.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the resistor (R 3 ) is used to compensate for a base resistance (rb) of the transistor (Q 1 ).

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the constant K is selected to compensate for bandgap reference voltage curvature and to achieve an accuracy for the DTR of better than +/−0.3 deg. C.

16. A method for producing a temperature reading using

a transistor (Q 1 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, where the base is connected to the collector, and a current path is between the emitter and the collector, and

a further transistor (Q 3 ) including a base, an emitter and a collector, where the base is connected to the collector, and a current path is between the emitter and the collector,

the method comprising:

(a) providing a first amount of current (I 1 ) and a second amount of current (I 2 ) to the current path of the transistor (Q 1 ), during different time slots of a time period, to thereby produce a first base-emitter voltage (Vbe 1 ) and a second base-emitter voltage (Vbe 2 ), where I 1 =I 2 *M, and M is a known constant;

(b) providing a current proportional to absolute temperature (Iptat) to the current path of the further transistor (Q 3 ), to thereby produce a third base-emitter voltage (Vbe 3 );

(c) converting Vbe 1 to Vbe 2 to analog current signals indicative of the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ;

(d) converting Vbe 3 to a reference current (Iref) indicative of the magnitude of Vbe 3 ;

(e) digitizing analog current signals indicative of the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 , including using Iref as a reference when digitizing the analog current signals indicative of the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 ; and

(f) digitally determining a difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 , and producing a digital temperature reading (DTR) using the difference between the magnitudes of Vbe 1 and Vbe 2 , and using Vbe 3 .

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein step (f) comprises producing the digital temperature reading (DTR) using the following equation

DTR=K* ( R 2 /R 1)*(| Vbe 1 −Vbe 2|)/[ K *( R 2 /R 1)*(| Vbe 1 −Vbe 2|)+ Vbe 3]*(2 ^N ),

where K is the constant and N is an integer ≧2.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein N is the number of bits of resolution of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that is used to perform step (e).

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the constant K is selected to compensate for bandgap reference voltage curvature and to achieve an accuracy for the DTR of better than +/−0.3 deg. C.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein step (f) comprises producing the digital temperature reading (DTR) using the following equation

DTR =( K*|Vbe 1 −Vbe 2|)/[ K*|Vbe 1 −Vbe 2 |+Vbe 3]*(2 ^N ),

where K is a constant and N is an integer ≧2.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein N is the number of bits of resolution of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that is used to perform step (e).

22. The method of claim 20 , where step (b) includes selecting the current proportional to absolute temperature (Iptat) to compensate for manufacturing process variations that affect the third base-emitter voltage (Vbe 3 ).

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the constant K is selected to compensate for bandgap reference voltage curvature and to achieve an accuracy for the DTR of better than +/−0.3 deg. C.