Patent ID: 8021042

Claim:
Apparatus for use in measuring a temperature of a bi-polar measurement transistor comprising: emitter current control circuitry having an output to be coupled to an emitter electrode of the measurement transistor, said emitter control circuitry being configured to adjust an emitter current to the measurement transistor in response to a state of at least one emitter current control signal; collector current select circuitry configured to produce a first state of the at least one emitter current control signal, with the measurement transistor emitter current resulting in a measurement transistor first collector current and to then produce a second state of the at least one emitter current control signal, with the measurement transistor emitter current resulting in a measurement transistor second collector current; and beta compensation circuitry having an input to be coupled to a base electrode of the measurement transistor and configured to cause the respective magnitudes of the measurement transistor first and second collector currents to have a known ratio N, with N being other than one.