Patent ID: 7808068

Claim:
A method for sensing the temperature of an integrated circuit, comprising the steps of: generating a proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT) current I PTAT that is proportional to absolute temperature (T); scaling the PTAT current I PTAT by a factor of N to generate an N-scaled PTAT current; diverting with an offset circuit an offset portion of current I OFF from the N-scaled PTAT current, the offset circuit having a bandgap voltage V BG across an offset resistor R OFF ; sourcing the remaining, non-diverted portion of the N-scaled PTAT current through a temperature sensor resistor R TS as a temperature sensor current I TS ; generating an output voltage V TS by the flow of the temperature sensor current I TS through the temperature sensor resistor R TS , the output voltage V TS being a function of the absolute temperature T and a function of the bandgap voltage V BG ; and offsetting the voltage across the temperature sensor resistor R TS by a voltage offset V OFF , wherein the voltage offset V OFF is the bandgap voltage V BG multiplied by a scaling factor P and multiplied by the ratio of the temperature sensor resistor R TS to an offset resistor R OFF .