CMOS phase-shift oscillator using the conduction of heat

摘要

We propose a CMOS phase-shift oscillator that makes use of a phase shift in the conduction of heat. The oscillator consists of an inverting amplifier and a feedback thermal filter that are integrated mono-lithically on a silicon chip. The thermal filter consists of a polysilicon heater and a MOSFET thermosensor that are separated from each other by a heat-conducting SiO2 layer. It accepts the output of the inverting amplifier, produces a phase shift due to heat conduction, and returns a 180 ° -shifted feedback signal to the amplifier. The oscillator can be expected to produce oscillation at a specific frequency determined by the dimensions of the filter and the thermal conductivity and specific heat of Si and SiO2.