A new time-mode on-chip oscillator-based low power temperature sensor

This paper presents an energy-efficient and high linearity temperature sensor based on simple on-chip oscillator´s architectures. A self-calibrated architecture is proposed to compensate the nonlinear effects due to PVT variations. In this manner, this on-chip oscillator-based temperature sensor has superior performance over the conventional inverter-chain based types. In order to generalize the application, no highly linear temperature coefficient resistors are being utilized. The entire circuit is simple and easy to be scaled down. According to the verification in 65nm CMOS process, with one-point calibration, this temperature sensor can achieve an inaccuracy within 1°C in the temperature range from -55°C to 125°C, with a power consumption of only 0.6μA under 1.2V supply voltages.