
Thermal Specifications and Design Considerations
84
Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor 3000 Series Datasheet
5.3.3
Thermal Diode
The processor incorporates an on-die PNP transistor where the base emitter junction is
used as a thermal "diode", with its collector shorted to ground. A thermal sensor
located on the system board may monitor the die temperature of the processor for
the "diode" parameter and interface specifications. Two different sets of "diode"
(
Table 5-6) apply to traditional thermal sensors that use the Diode Equation to
determine the processor temperature. Transistor Model parameters
(Table 5-7) have
been added to support thermal sensors that use the transistor equation method. The
Transistor Model may provide more accurate temperature measurements when the
diode ideality factor is closer to the maximum or minimum limits. This thermal "diode"
is separate from the Thermal Monitor's thermal sensor and cannot be used to predict
the behavior of the Thermal Monitor.
TCONTROL is a temperature specification based on a temperature reading from the
thermal diode. The value for TCONTROL will be calibrated in manufacturing and
configured for each processor. When TDIODE is above TCONTROL, then TC must be at or
below TC_MAX as defined by the thermal profile in Table 5-2; otherwise, the processor temperature can be maintained at TCONTROL (or lower) as measured by the thermal
diode.
Notes:
1.
Intel does not support or recommend operation of the thermal diode under reverse bias.
2.
Characterized across a temperature range of 50 – 80 °C.
3.
Not 100% tested. Specified by design characterization.
4.
The ideality factor, n, represents the deviation from ideal diode behavior as exemplified by the diode
equation:
I
FW = IS * (e
qVD/nkT
–1)
where IS = saturation current, q = electronic charge, VD = voltage across the diode,
k = Boltzmann Constant, and T = absolute temperature (Kelvin).
5.
The series resistance, RT, is provided to allow for a more accurate measurement of the junction
temperature. RT, as defined, includes the lands of the processor but does not include any socket resistance
or board trace resistance between the socket and the external remote diode thermal sensor. RT can be used
by remote diode thermal sensors with automatic series resistance cancellation to calibrate out this error
term. Another application is that a temperature offset can be manually calculated and programmed into an
offset register in the remote diode thermal sensors as exemplified by the equation:
T
error = [RT * (N–1) * IFWmin] / [nk/q * ln N]
where Terror = sensor temperature error, N = sensor current ratio, k = Boltzmann
Constant, q = electronic charge.
Table 5-6.
Thermal “Diode” Parameters using Diode Model
Symbol
Parameter
Min
Typ
Max
Unit
Notes
IFW
Forward Bias Current
5
—
200
A
1
n
Diode Ideality Factor
1.000
1.009
1.050
-
2, 3, 4
RT
Series Resistance
2.79
4.52
6.24
Ω
2, 3, 5