A low power thermal protection topology

Many circuits are subject to excessive heating such as digital and power switching circuits. Overheating may cause permanent damage to the circuits and devices. In this article we present a temperature monitor the temperature variation and once a certain limit is reached, a protection mechanism could shut off the circuit operation or at least signalize for a specific operation. The circuit offers linear operation from −25 °C to +120°C, and it can be adjusted to detect any temperature in that range. The proposed circuit was developed for low voltage and low power operation, and the prototyped was designed in TSMC 0.35um technology.