THERMORESISTANCE SENSOR STRUCTURE FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND METHOD OF MAKING

摘要

A first pair of resistors formed in a first layer of material, and a second pair of resistors formed in the first layer or in a second layer can be wired into a Wheatstone bridge to form a temperature sensor. Either layer can include a semiconductor or a dielectric. In a semiconductor layer, a pair of resistors can be doped areas of the layer, while in a dielectric, a pair of resistors can be material deposited in cavities in the layer, such as material from an added “middle-of-line” (MOL) metallization layer.

主权项

1. A thermoresistance sensor structure for an integrated circuit comprising:
a first layer of material of an integrated circuit; first and second front-end-of-line resistors made from a first resistor material including a first material of the first layer, the first resistor material having a first thermal coefficient of resistance (TCR), the first and second resistors having respective first and second resistance values at a reference temperature; third and fourth resistors made from a second resistor material including one of the first material of the first layer or a second material of a second layer of the integrated circuit, the second resistor material having a second TCR that differs from the first TCR by a predetermined TCR difference, the third and fourth resistors having respective second and fourth resistance values at the reference temperature; and metal wires from a 1× back-end-of-line (BEOL) metallization (Mn) layer of the integrated circuit that form a Wheatstone bridge by connecting the first and fourth resistors in series as part of a first leg of the bridge, and connecting the second and third resistors in series as part of a second leg of the bridge, wherein the first and second resistors are opposed, the third and fourth resistors are opposed, an output voltage of the Wheatstone bridge is a predefined value at the reference temperature, and the output voltage is indicative of a difference in temperature between a current temperature of the bridge and the reference temperature according to a predefined relationship between at least the first TCR, the second TCR, the first, second, third, and fourth resistance values, and the difference in temperature.