A digital temperature and voltage sensor with high-speed and small area

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K12660
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Computer system
• Research Institution: Kyushu Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: MIYAKE Yousuke 九州工業大学, 大学院情報工学研究院, 研究職員 (60793403)
• Research Collaborator: KAJIHARA Seiji
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 温度センサ / 電圧センサ / デジタルセンサ / リングオシレータ / LSIテスト / フィールドテスト / VLSI設計技術 / ディペンダブル・コンピューティング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Measuring temperature and voltage in a current VLSI is very important in guaranteeing its reliability, because a large variation of temperature or voltage in field will reduce a delay margin and makes the chip behavior unreliable. This research proposed an on-chip digital temperature and voltage sensor that can be realized as a high-speed and small area sensor. a measurement time of the sensor is able to set below 0.1 msec. Since the proposed sensor's area is small and its design is fully digital, the impact on chip design will be small. This research also proposed some techniques for the sensor such as a RO(Ring Oscillator)-based sensor circuit, a calculation circuit that calcuates on-chip temperature and voltage from measured RO count values, or a calibration technique that reduces effects of process variation. In order to evaluate the proposed techniques, circuit simulation is performed, its feasibility was confirmed.

Free Research Field

情報学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で開発したデジタル温度電圧センサ技術を実現することで，本センサをシステム制御に活用したMPUごとのスループット向上や，電力制御による消費電力削減が期待できる．また，センサを用いたVLSIの動的性能最適化技術への寄与だけでなく，他のセンサ技術と組合せたセンサネットワーク技術への応用も期待でき，学術的波及効果は大きい．さらに，デジタルセンサであるため，設計・製造への負担が小さいことを活かし，FPGAへの実装を通じたIoT機器の環境センサや体内埋込型医療機器への適用等，幅広い用途を見込むことができる．したがって，本研究はVLSIを用いた様々なシステムの信頼性確保に大きく貢献する．