Internal & remote temp measurement

Digital monitor provides accurate internal & remote temperature measurements

Linear Technology Corporation has introduced the LTC2990, an I²C temperature and voltage monitor for 3V and 5V systems. Many emerging, low voltage systems today rely on monitoring ICs to relay parametric data used in assessing overall system health and reliability. Traditional ADC implementations require a sensor, low noise preamplifier, precise reference and some type of digital interface, resulting in a complex monitoring scheme prone to inaccuracies if not carefully designed. This is a highly integrated monitoring solution that incorporates a 14-bit ADC, a 10ppm/°C voltage reference and I2C digital interface to provide submillivolt voltage resolution, as well as +1°C accuracy internally and +0.5°C accuracy remotely when making temperature measurements. The LTC2990 provides a configurable, yet simple solution for monitoring temperature and voltage without compromising accuracy on any parameter.

The LTC2990 caters to a wide variety of applications including supply voltage monitoring and remote diode temperature measurement, particularly in industrial or computing systems where thermal management is crucial for maximizing performance. The device enables configuration of four single-ended voltage inputs to measure any combination of internal temperature, remote temperature, remote voltage and internal VCC for single or repeated measurements. When making differential measurements of diode or transistor voltages to calculate temperature, the LTC2990 allows for cancellation of error due to sensor series resistance. Its accuracy is the result of the averaging 14-bit ADC, while the number of supporting components and area required is minimized thanks to the internal 10ppm voltage reference. In addition, the I2C serial interface enables easy configuration and read back of the device's control, status and data registers, with support of up to 400kbit/s in I2C fast mode.

The LTC2990 is offered in commercial and industrial versions, supporting operating temperature ranges from 0°C to 70°C and -40°C to 85°C, respectively. The LTC2990 is available today in a small RoHS compliant, 10-lead MSOP package.