Using temperature sensors in electronic equipment

摘要

Electronics designers have made use of temperature sensors for many years, in applications ranging from shutting down the system during an over-temperature condition, to providing thermal calibration in high-accuracy designs and displaying temperature data. In the past decade, the need for higher performance and more-compact systems has driven the wide adoption of silicon-based thermal sensors in many different types of design. The growing use of high-performance digital devices, such as CPUs and ASICs, has resulted in systems that dissipate a significant amount of power. These systems have new thermal management requirements that have led to the development of a new generation of temperature sensor ICs that can simplify design and provide an easy interface to other components. Designers need to understand the differences between the most popular types of temperature sensor ICs, so that they can select the best one for their application - increasing system performance and shortening development cycles.