Design of an Embedded CMOS Temperature Sensor for Passive RFID Tag Chips

This paper presents an ultra-low embedded power temperature sensor for passive RFID tags. The temperature sensor converts the temperature variation to a PTAT current, which is then transformed into a temperature-controlled frequency. A phase locked loop (PLL)-based sensor interface is employed to di...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fangming Deng, Yigang He, Bing Li, Lihua Zhang, Xiang Wu, Zhihui Fu, Lei Zuo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2015-05-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/15/5/11442
Description
Summary:This paper presents an ultra-low embedded power temperature sensor for passive RFID tags. The temperature sensor converts the temperature variation to a PTAT current, which is then transformed into a temperature-controlled frequency. A phase locked loop (PLL)-based sensor interface is employed to directly convert this temperature-controlled frequency into a corresponding digital output without an external reference clock. The fabricated sensor occupies an area of 0.021 mm2 using the TSMC 0.18 1P6M mixed-signal CMOS process. Measurement results of the embedded sensor within the tag system shows a 92 nW power dissipation under 1.0 V supply voltage at room temperature, with a sensing resolution of 0.15 °C/LSB and a sensing accuracy of −0.7/0.6 °C from −30 °C to 70 °C after 1-point calibration at 30 °C.
ISSN:1424-8220