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. 08, 2006
Filed:
Sep. 28, 2004
Dan D'aquino, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Mehmet Aslan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Dan D'Aquino, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Mehmet Aslan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
National Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A circuit for temperature sensing receives a differential voltage that corresponds to the voltage across a forward-biased PN junction. The circuit for temperature sensing provides a first current to the PN junction, and subsequently provides a second current. Also, the temperature of the PN junction is determined based on the difference between the differential voltage when the first current is applied and the differential voltage when the second current is applied. Further, the circuit for temperature sensing self-biases half of the differential signal. The other half of the differential signal is level-shifted by an amount that is fixed and predetermined based on the self-biasing to provide a sub-ranging voltage. A sub-ranging analog-to-digital conversion is performed on the differential voltage in which the sub-ranging voltage is subtracted from the differential voltage during the conversion.