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May 2012
Accurate Temperature Sensing with an External P-N
Junction
Michael Jones
Introduction
Linear Technology devices use an external bipolar transistor p-n junction to measure temperature. The relationship
between forward voltage, current, and temperature is:
VBE
(nV
)
T
IC = IS e
1
VT =
kT
q
kT IC
In
q IS
VBE
I
nk In C
IS
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an137f
AN137-1
V1
AN137 F01
Figure 1.
( VBE1 VBE2 )
34.3
34.2
34.1
34.0
33.9
33.8
33.7
33.6
33.5
33.4
33.3
33.2
33.1
33.0
32.9
100k
1M
nk 1
In
q N
AN137 F02
Figure 2.
Noise Sources
A typical diode temperature sensor is comprised of a
2N3906, 10F capacitor, current source, and voltage
measurement.
10M
(Hz)
(V V )
T = BE1 BE2
4
2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
100M
(DEGREE)
nk IC1
In
q IC2
(dB)
T=
C1 2N3906
10F
Q1
I1
500A
V1
I1
500A
C2
10nF
V1
C1 2N3906
10F
Q1
AN137 F03
AN137-2
672
665
658
651
VBE =
(mV)
644
1
In 60mV
10
q
nkT
637
630
623
616
609
602
0
10 12 14 16 18 20
(ms)
V1
K L2 L1 0.01
AN137 F04
I2
C1 2N3906
10F
Q1
10nH
I1
500A
Figure 4.
t L1
L2
10nH
AN137 F07
660
655
V1
650
645
C1 2N3906
10F
Q1
I2
640
(mV)
I1
500A
R2
0.01
REMOTE
GND
635
630
625
AN137 F05
620
615
610
464
466
468
470
472
474
476
(s)
658
478
AN137 F08
656
Figure 8.
654
652
(mV)
650
648
646
644
642
640
638
636
33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
(s)
Figure 6.
AN137 F06
an137f
AN137-3
Figure 9.
Figure 10.
Figure 11.
AN137-4
Figure 12.
Figure 13.
an137f
AN137-5
V(V2)
450
420
390
360
330
300
270
0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
(A)
V(V1)
540
(mV)
Some designs may use a power block with built in temperature diode. Some of these power blocks do not have
a pin for the low sense of the diode. These blocks may not
have a filter capacitor. In these situations, you can place a
filter on your board as close to the high side diode sense
pin of the power block as possible, and try to minimize all
noise sources. A low sense line can still be routed from the
power ground, but you cant eliminate the shared current
from the switching path, so some noise will be injected.
You can mitigate some of the problems that may result by:
AN137 F14
An LTspice simulation demonstrates the difference between a diode connected 2N3906 and a 1N4148. The diode
has almost 150mV lower voltage at 30A.
570
510
450
70mV
480
(mV)
2N3906
V(V1)
540
V(V2)
1N4148
420
390
360
330
300
270
0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
(A)
AN137 F15
an137f
AN137-6
2N3906
V(V1)
540
510
(mV)
480
V(V2)
450
2N4148
420
127mV
330
300
270
0
390
360
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
(A)
AN137 F16
an137f
AN137-7
CCOUPLING
10p
VNOISE
REC
CREC
6p
RREC
50
90.3
20
90.0
30
89.7
40
89.4
50
89.1
60
88.8
70
88.5
80
88.2
90
87.9
100
87.6
110
87.3
120
100
1k
10k
100k
AN137 A1
87.0
10M
1M
(Hz)
(DEGREE)
(dB)
Capacitive Coupling
10
AN137 A2
Figure A2.
Figure A1.
COUPLING
j
CCOUPLING + CREC
VREC =
VNOISE
1
j +
RREC (CCOUPLING + CREC )
CSHIELD
100p
REC
RREC
50
CREC
6p
VNOISE
AC 5
AN137 A3
Figure A3.
LTC2991
470pF
NPN SENSOR
V1
V2
V3
V4
V5
V6
V7
V8
VCC
ADR2
ADR1
ADR0
PWM
SCL
SDA
GND
0.1F
AN137 A4
Figure A4.
AN137-8
VNOISE
REC+
RREC
50
CREC
6p
C2
6p
10
99
20
90
30
81
40
72
63
50
R1 REC
10
AN137 A5
Figure A5.
54
60
45
70
36
80
27
90
18
100
110
120
100
1k
VNOISE
C2
6p
AC 5
R1 REC
1M
(dB)
89.6
30
89.2
40
88.8
50
88.4
60
88.0
70
87.6
80
87.2
90
86.8
100
86.4
110
86.0
100k
Figure A7.
1M
Inductive Coupling
(DEGREE)
20
(Hz)
Figure A8.
10
10k
AN137 A8
Figure A6.
1k
9
10M
AN137 A6
120
100
(Hz)
1M
RREC
50
CREC
6p
100k
REC+
C1
10p
10k
(DEGREE)
C1
10p
(dB)
85.6
10M
AN137 A7
Note 1: Parallel routing will still eliminate shared current coupling from
power ground
an137f
AN137-9
LCOUPLING1
20n
t
R1
15
(dB)
V1
t
RSENSOR
50
AC 5
RREC
1M
AN137 A9
89.5
40
90.0
50
90.5
60
91.0
70
91.5
80
92.0
90
92.5
100
93.0
110
93.5
120
94.0
130
94.5
140
100
Figure A9.
1k
10k
100k
(Hz)
10
89.5
20
90.0
30
90.5
40
91.0
50
91.5
60
92.0
70
92.5
80
93.0
90
93.5
100
94.0
110
94.5
120
100
1k
10k
100k
(Hz)
1M
(DEGREE)
(dB)
95.0
10M
AN137 A10
Figure A10.
1M
(DEGREE)
30
95.0
10M
AN137 A11
Figure A11.
an137f
AN137-10
AN137 A13
AN137 A12
Figure A12.
Figure A13.
an137f
AN137-11
an137f
AN137-12
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