CMOS compatible temperature sensor based on the lateral bipolar transistor for very wide temperature range applications

A CMOS process compatible wide range temperature sensor that takes advantage of the lateral bipolar transistor is described. Concerning accuracy, a temperature error of 0.34 degrees C rms in current mode (with an on-chip 2nd-order temperature compensation) and of 1.86 degrees C rms in voltage mode is the measured performance, without post-fabrication trimming, of this integrated sensor, over the -50 degrees C to 150 degrees C temperature range. Other important characteristics are the low cost, the less than 1 mW power consumption, the higher than 40 dB PSRR, the relatively small surface, and the output signal swing which is intrinsically referenced to the temperature range, being specially conditioned for analog to digital conversion in both current and voltage modes. The characteristics of this sensor make it especially suitable for low-cost high-volume integrated microsystems over a wide range of fields, such as automotive, space, oil prospecting, biomedical, etc. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.