Importance

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Abstract

The present invention provides a thermal sensor circuit for sensing the temperature of an integrated circuit chip, the thermal sensor circuit including: an output comparator for comparing a reference voltage, V.sub.ref, with a sensed voltage, V.sub.sense, the sensed voltage being measured over a sensing resistor relative to the ground potential of the circuit; a first circuit to which a reference voltage line in connected to measure V.sub.ref ; a first current mirror providing a first current input to the first circuit and to a compensation circuit; and second current mirror providing a second current input to the compensation circuit and to the sensing resistor. The compensation circuit provides a current gain, defined as the ratio of the second current input to the first current input, for compensating for variations in V.sub.ref due to variations of the characteristics of the thermal sensing circuit arising from a manufacturing process of an integrated circuit chip on which the thermal sensor circuit is made by adjusting the second current input in dependence on the variations of the characteristics to thereby vary V.sub.sense along with V.sub.ref.

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First Claim