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Abstract

A technique for sensing the temperature of power MOS devices contemplates a main transistor and monolithically formed sense transistor. A resistor, which may integrated into the device or may be off chip, is connected between the respective source nodes of the main transistor and the sense transistor (as in a normal current mirror). However, the respective gate nodes of the main transistor and the sense transistor are not directly connected to each other (in contrast to the normal current mirror configuration where the respective gate nodes of the main transistor and the sense transistor are directly connected). Rather, the sense transistor gate node is coupled to the output terminal of an operational amplifier. The amplifier, has a first input terminal coupled to a reference voltage and a second, complementary, input terminal coupled to the sense transistor source node.

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First Claim