JP2001298160A - Integrated circuit - Google Patents

Abstract

[PROBLEMS] To enable high-precision chip temperature measurement without manual intervention even after temperature calibration data is stored in an LSI at the time of manufacturing an LSI and incorporated into an electronic device. A voltage measuring circuit is a constant current circuit for a thermosensitive element.
4, a voltage is applied between the two electrodes of the thermosensitive element 2 by the voltage measuring circuit 5, and the measurement result is output to the AD conversion circuit 7,
The arithmetic circuit 8 receives the voltage data output from the AD conversion circuit 7 and the temperature calibration data output from the nonvolatile raw correction value holding circuit 6, calculates the calibrated temperature data, and Output to the control means 10. The control means 10 controls the cooling mechanism controller 12 to increase the cooling capacity, controls the temperature of the LSI 1 within the operation assurance temperature, and protects the LSI 1 from burnout.
Control and turn off the power. The temperature calibration data stored in the holding circuit 6 is obtained by inspecting the characteristics of the thermal element 2 before supplying power to the LSI 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for controlling the temperature of an LSI chip by utilizing the temperature dependency of a heat-sensitive element provided in an integrated circuit (hereinafter referred to as an LSI) in an electronic device such as a processor unit or a processor module. The present invention relates to a temperature measurement system of an electronic device that measures and controls, for example, rotation of a cooling fan based on measurement data of the chip temperature.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the prior art, when a chip temperature measurement is desired to be performed with high accuracy after an LSI is incorporated in an electronic device, a user gives a correction value for each LSI variation to improve the measurement accuracy. I was

[0003]

In the above-mentioned prior art, there is a problem that high-precision chip temperature measurement cannot be performed unless a user gives a temperature correction value. The object of the present invention is
It is an object of the present invention to store a temperature correction value in an LSI at the time of manufacturing an LSI, and to enable a high-accuracy chip temperature measurement without manual intervention even after being incorporated in an electronic device.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention measures a voltage generated between electrodes of a thermal element provided in an integrated circuit, and integrates the voltage by utilizing the temperature dependency of the thermal element. In an integrated circuit that measures the chip temperature of a circuit,
Measuring means for measuring a voltage generated between the electrodes of the thermosensitive element, a nonvolatile correction value holding circuit capable of holding temperature calibration data of the thermosensitive element and writing data, and a voltage value which is an output of the measuring means; And an arithmetic circuit for inputting temperature calibration data output from the non-volatile correction value holding circuit, calculating and outputting calibrated temperature data of the integrated circuit. The nonvolatile correction value holding circuit further holds a temperature threshold, and the arithmetic circuit further inputs a temperature threshold output from the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit, and the calculated calibrated temperature data is One value is output when the temperature is larger than the temperature threshold, and the other value is output when the temperature is not larger. The arithmetic circuit includes the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of an integrated circuit (LSI) according to the present invention. The LSI shown in FIG. 1 includes a voltage measuring means 3 having a constant current circuit 4 and a voltage measuring circuit 5 for measuring a forward voltage of the thermosensitive element 2 provided in the LSI 1,
The forward voltage of the thermosensitive element 2 is set in advance for temperature calibration.
A nonvolatile correction value holding circuit 6 for holding data measured at or above the temperature point or a correction parameter obtained based on the measured data as temperature calibration data, and a voltage value measured by the voltage measuring means 3 An arithmetic circuit 8 for calculating a temperature based on the temperature calibration data held in the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit 6, and a read interface 9 for outputting the calculated temperature data to the outside of the LSI by the arithmetic circuit 8; Is provided inside the LSI. The control means 10 of the entire electronic device controls the power supply control device 11 for the processor unit and the cooling mechanism control device 12 based on the data output from the read interface 9 of the LSI.

According to this embodiment, the temperature of the LSI is LS
When the temperature becomes equal to or higher than the operation guarantee temperature of I, the cooling mechanism controller 12 is controlled to increase the cooling capacity, and the temperature of the LSI can be controlled within the operation guarantee temperature. As a last resort, the power supply control device 11 for the processor unit can be controlled to turn off the power supply in order to protect the LSI from burnout and the like. As described above, since the temperature of the chip can be constantly monitored, the reliability of the electronic device can be improved.

Next, acquisition of the temperature calibration data held in the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit 6, storage of the temperature calibration data in the holding circuit 6, and temperature calibration in the arithmetic circuit will be described in detail. I do. FIG. 2 shows the LS according to the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a diagram for describing acquisition of temperature correction data of I and storage of a correction value in a nonvolatile correction value holding circuit. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a method for calculating a temperature of an LSI according to the present invention.
For temperature calibration, first, data necessary for temperature calibration is obtained. In order to obtain this data, the temperature of the LSI 1 is stabilized at a low temperature by using the temperature control device 15 and the temperature measuring device 16 before the power is supplied to the LSI 1,
A certain amount of current flows only from the terminal of I1 to the thermosensitive element 2,
The voltage generated between the electrodes is read from the terminal of the LSI 1 by the reading device 13 and measured. At this time, the temperature and voltage become TLow and VLow, as shown in FIG. Next, the temperature of the LSI 1 is stabilized to a high temperature by using the temperature control device 15 and the temperature measuring device 16, a fixed amount of current flows from the terminal of the LSI 1 only to the thermosensitive element 2, and the voltage generated between the electrodes is The data is read from the terminal by the reading device 13 and measured. The temperature and voltage at this time are shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, the values are THigh and VHigh. L
Since the measurement is performed before power is supplied to the SI1, there is no heat generated by the LSI 1 itself, and the measurement result is not affected by the heat generated by the LSI 1 itself. By obtaining these four values, as shown in FIG. 3, the point of (VLow, TLow) and (VHigh, TLow)
A straight line of V-Tj passing through the High) point is obtained, and the temperature of the LSI 1 when the voltage between the electrodes of the thermal element 2 is VMeas is obtained as TMeas from this straight line. From this straight line, the temperature conversion formula is TMeas = a × (VMeas−VLow) + TLow, as shown in FIG. 3, and the slope a is a = (THHigh−TLow) / (VHigh−VLow). The temperature calibration data to be written into the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit 6 is, for example, the above-mentioned VLow, TLow, VH
pair of high and TH, or the gradients a and V described above.
For example, a combination of Low and TLow. Next, data for temperature calibration is written into the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit 6 from the terminal of the LSI 1 using the writing device 14.

In the above embodiment, the output of the arithmetic circuit 8 is temperature data. However, if the output of the arithmetic circuit 8 is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value,
'1') and the other value (for example, '0') may be taken if it is not equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold. In this case, the threshold value is further written and stored in the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit 6, and the calculated temperature data is compared with the threshold value in the arithmetic circuit 8, and the one value or the other is compared as a comparison result. A circuit for outputting a value is provided. Although the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit 6 and the arithmetic circuit 8 are provided separately, the configuration may be such that the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit 6 is built in the arithmetic circuit 8.

[0009]

The LSI according to the present invention can measure the chip temperature with high accuracy without any manual intervention even after being incorporated in an electronic device. Furthermore, since various processes can be executed based on highly accurate temperature data, the reliability of the electronic device can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of an LSI according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining acquisition of temperature correction data of an LSI and storage of a correction value in a nonvolatile correction value holding circuit according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a method for calculating a temperature of an LSI according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 LSI 2 Thermal element 3 Voltage measuring means 4 Constant current circuit 5 Voltage measuring circuit 6 Nonvolatile correction value holding circuit 7 A / D conversion circuit 8 Operation circuit 9 Readout interface 10 Control means for the whole electronic device 11 Power supply control device for processor unit 12 Cooling Mechanism control device 13 Reading device 14 Writing device 15 Temperature control device 16 Temperature measuring device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An integrated circuit for measuring a voltage generated between electrodes of a thermosensitive element provided in an integrated circuit and measuring a chip temperature of the integrated circuit by utilizing a temperature dependency of the thermosensitive element. Measuring means for measuring a voltage generated between the electrodes; a non-volatile correction value holding circuit capable of holding temperature calibration data of the thermosensitive element and writing data; a voltage value which is an output of the measuring means; An integrated circuit, comprising: an arithmetic circuit that inputs temperature calibration data output from a correction value holding circuit, calculates and outputs calibrated temperature data of the integrated circuit. 2. The integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein said nonvolatile correction value holding circuit further holds a temperature threshold, and said arithmetic circuit further sets a temperature threshold output from said nonvolatile correction value holding circuit. An integrated circuit which outputs one value when the input and calculated calibrated temperature data is larger than the temperature threshold value, and outputs the other value when it is not larger. 3. The integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic circuit includes the nonvolatile correction value holding circuit.