Journal
SENSORS AND ACTUATORS A-PHYSICAL
Volume 192, Issue -, Pages 49-57Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
DOI: 10.1016/j.sna.2012.12.010
Keywords
CMOS integrated circuits; Temperature measurements in integrated; circuits; Temperature sensor design; Characterization of CMOS RF circuits
Funding
- Ramon y Cajal contract [TEC2008-01856, RyC2010-07434]
- FEDER [TEC2008-05577 (THERMOS)]
- Spanish Government
- AGAUR [SGR 1497]
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This work aims at showing a new approach for determining the efficiency of linear class A RF power amplifiers by means of non-invasive, steady-state thermal monitoring. The theoretical basis of the technique is indicated and its suitability in a real case application scenario is presented. More in detail, silicon surface thermal monitoring is performed with built-in sensors and infrared measurements on an RF power amplifier. The first monitoring circuit consists of differential sensors, which can be used for contact-less on-line efficiency monitoring or to easy production testing. The obtained results are corroborated by means of Infrared measurements. Off-chip temperature sensors have applications in failure analysis or circuit debugging scenarios. As a result, we observe a good agreement between the efficiency predicted with the thermal measurements (less than 5% of error) when compared to values measured with standard electrical equipment. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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