The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 31, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 12, 1997
Gary S Gibson, Tucson, AZ (US);
Burr-Brown Corporation, Tucson, AR (US);
Abstract
A circuit provides at least partial thermal shutdown of an integrated circuit chip including a functional circuit (7) in response to detection of a hot spot in a first area of the chip. First (Q1) and second (Q3) transistors in a second area (3) of the chip are located a first distance (10) from the second area of the chip, and third (Q4) and fourth (Q2) transistors in a third area (4) of the chip are located a second distance (11) substantially greater than the first distance from the first area. The functional circuit (7) dissipates power in the first area, causing a temperature in the hot spot to rise to approximately a first temperature T3 and causing the temperature of the first and second transistors to be a second temperature T2 and causing the temperature of the third and fourth transistors to be a third temperature T1. The first, second, third and fourth transistors are operated to in effect extrapolate between the second T2 and third T1 temperatures to produce a current (IOUT) proportional to the difference between the second T2 and third T1 temperature, and hence representative of the first temperature T3. At least a portion of the functional circuit turned off to reduce the temperature of the first region has a value that exceeds a predetermined maximum value.