Work

Exploiting nonlinear oscillator dynamics for on-chip thermal sensing

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Real-time monitoring of temperature in FPGAs is crucial to ensure system reliability, as local temperature variations can affect their performance. For these purposes, virtual temperature sensors such as Ring Oscillator (RO)-based sensors are widely used. However, efficiently implementing them with a minimal number of Look-Up Tables (LUTs) remains a significant challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel temperature sensor architecture based on nonlinear oscillators, implemented on a 28 nm Artix-7 FPGA. The proposed approach minimizes the usage of FPGA resources while maintaining accurate thermal sensing. As a result, several nonlinear oscillators are analyzed, achieving better sensitivity (0.020%/°C) over a 25 % wider temperature range compared to other RO-based temperature sensors reported in the literature for the 28 nm technology node. These results highlight the potential of these oscillators as efficient, low-resource alternatives for real-time thermal monitoring in FPGA.

Source: Measurement

DOI: 10.1016/j.measurement.2026.120619

Authors: Raúl Aparicio-Téllez, Miguel Garcia-Bosque, Guillermo Diez-Señorans, Santiago Celma

Institutions: Universidad de Zaragoza, Instituto de Investigación en Ingeniería de Aragón

Language: English

Topic: Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security

Subfield: Hardware and Architecture

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,760

Funder: Agencia Estatal de Investigación