ADT7462
Rev. 0 | Page 23 of 92
TEMPERATURE AND VOLTAGE MEASUREMENT
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
The ADT7462 can measure its own ambient temperature and
the temperature of up to three remote thermal diodes. These
diodes can be discrete diode-connected 2N3904/6s or can be
located on a processor die. Figure 33 shows how to connect a
remote NPN or PNP transistor.
D+
D–
ADT7462
2N3904
D+
D–
ADT7462
N3906
05569-023
Figure 33. How to Measure Temperature Using Discrete Transistors
Remote Thermal Diode 1 connects to Pin 15 and Pin 16.
Remote Thermal Diode 2 connects to Pin 17 and Pin 18.
Remote Thermal Diode 3 connects to Pin 19 and Pin 20.
A simple method of measuring temperature is to exploit the
negative temperature coefficient of a diode, measuring the base-
emitter voltage (VBE) of a transistor, operated at constant
current. Unfortunately, this technique requires calibration to
null out the effect of the absolute value of VBE, which varies
from device to device.
The technique used in the ADT7462 is to measure the change
in VBE when the device is operated at three different currents.
Previous devices have used only two operating currents;
use of a third current allows automatic cancellation of any
resistances in series with the external temperature sensor.
Figure 34 shows the input signal conditioning used to measure
the output of an external temperature sensor. This figure shows
the external sensor as a substrate transistor, but it could equally
be a discrete transistor. If a discrete transistor is used, the
collector is not grounded and should be linked to the base. To
prevent ground noise from interfering with the measurement, the
more negative terminal of the sensor is not referenced to
ground but is biased above ground by an internal diode at the
D− input. C1 can optionally be added as a noise filter
(recommended maximum value 1000 pF). However, a better
option in noisy environments is to add a filter, as described in
the Noise Filtering section.
To measure ∆VBE, the operating current through the sensor is
switched among three related currents. As shown in Figure 34,
N1 × I and N2 × I are different multiples of the Current I. The
currents through the temperature diode are switched between I
and N1 × I, giving ∆VBE1, and then between I and N2 × I, giving
∆VBE2. The temperature can then be calculated using the two
∆VBE measurements. This method can also be shown to cancel
the effect of any series resistance on the temperature
measurement.
The resulting ∆VBE waveforms are passed through a 65 kHz
low-pass filter to remove noise and then to a chopper-stabilized
amplifier. This amplifies and rectifies the waveform to produce
a dc voltage proportional to ∆VBE. The ADC digitizes this
voltage, and a temperature measurement is produced. To reduce
the effects of noise, digital filtering is performed by averaging
the results of 16 measurement cycles for low conversion rates.
Signal conditioning and measurement of the internal
temperature sensor are performed in the same manner.
C1*
D+
BIAS
DIODE
*CAPACITOR C1 IS OPTIONAL. IT SHOULD ONLY BE USED IN NOISY ENVIRONMENTS.
CC
TO ADC
V
OUT+
V
OUT–
REMOTE
SENSING
TRANSISTOR D–
IN1 ×IN2 ×II
BIAS
LOW-PASS FILTER
f
C
=65kHz
05569-024
Figure 34. Input Signal Conditioning
Temperature Measurement Results
The results of the local and remote temperature measurements
are stored in the local and remote temperature value registers
and are compared with limits programmed into the local and
remote high and low limit registers.
Table 12. Temperature Measurement Registers
Temperature Value Register Address
Local Temperature, LSB Register 0x88, Bits [7:6]
Local Temperature, MSB Register 0x89
Remote 1 Temperature, LSB Register 0x8A, Bits [7:6]
Remote 1 Temperature, MSB Register 0x8B
Remote 2 Temperature, LSB Register 0x8C, Bits [7:6]
Remote 2 Temperature, MSB Register 0x8D
Remote 3 Temperature, LSB Register 0x8E, Bits [7:6]
Remote 3 Temperature, MSB Register 0x8F
The temperature value is stored in two registers. The MSB has a
resolution of 1°C. Only two bits in the temperature LSB register
are used, Bit 7 and Bit 6, giving a temperature measurement a
resolution of 0.25°C. The temperature measurement range for
both local and remote measurements is from −64°C to +191°C.
However, the ADT7462 itself should never be operated outside
its operating temperature range, which is from −40°C to +125°C.
For the remote diode, the user should refer to the data sheet of
the diode.
Table 13. Temperature Data Format
Temperature Value MSB LSB
−64°C 0000 0000 0000 0000
−50.25°C 0000 1110 0100 0000
−25°C 0010 0111 0000 0000
0°C 0100 0000 0000 0000
+25°C 0101 1001 0000 0000
+50.25°C 0111 0010 0100 0000
+100°C 1010 0100 0000 0000