In-chip monitoring company Moortec has just added to its portfolio a Distributed Thermal Sensor (DTS) that, compared to to some standard in-chip thermal sensor solutions, offers a 7x area reduction. The solution is implemented in TSMC’s N5 process technology, supporting high accuracy measurement across a wide temperature range at enhanced conversion speeds.

“We’ve seen a clear need for tighter thermal control of semiconductor devices,” said Stephen Crosher, Moortec CEO. “Multi-core architectures applied to AI, automotive, consumer and many other applications, benefiting from highly distributed sensing schemes to minimise system-level power consumption, optimise data throughput and improve product lifetimes. and further strengthen the long-term collaboration we have with TSMC.”

As geometries scale down to and beyond 5nm, designers are facing major challenges to provide reliable, power efficient and speed optimised chip designs. Thermal activity can be unpredictable and if not monitored carefully can cause over-heating and excessive power consumption which in turn impacts device longevity. The ability to make precise thermal measurements beside or within CPU cores, high speed interfaces or highly active circuitry has become a mandatory requirement for devices used within a range of application areas.

Moortec’s DTS technology design kit was made available in early 2020 and has already been licensed to several major customers.