
- 13 - 
 Andigilog, Inc. 2006 
www.andigilog.com
October 2006 - 70A05011 
aSC7521A
Applications Information 
Remote Diodes 
The aSC7521A is designed to work with a variety of remote 
sensors in the form of a diode-connected transistor or the 
substrate thermal diode of a CPU or graphics controller. 
Actual diodes are not suited for these measurements. 
There is some variation in the performance of these diodes, 
described in terms of its departure from the ideal diode 
equation. This factor is called diode non-ideality,
.
nf
The equation relating diode temperature to a change in 
thermal diode voltage with two driving currents is: 
Δ
V
BE
=
  (nf )KT
q
ln(N)
where: 
nf
 = Pentium 4, 65nM non-ideality factor, (nominal 1.009). 
K
 = Boltzman’s constant, (1.38 x 10
-23
). 
T
 = diode junction temperature in Kelvins. 
q
 = electron charge (1.6 x 10
 Coulombs). 
N
 = ratio of the two driving currents (10). 
The aSC7521A is designed and trimmed for an expected 
value of 1.009, based on the typical value for the Pentium 4, 
65nM. There is also a tolerance on the value provided. The 
values for CPUs may have different nominal values and 
tolerances. Consult the CPU or GPU manufacturer’s data 
sheet for the 
factor. 
nf
Table 5 gives a representative 
sample of what one may expect in the range of non-ideality. 
The trend with CPUs is for a lower value with a larger spread. 
nf
When thermal diode has a non-ideality factor other than 
1.0046 the difference in temperature reading at a particular 
temperature may be interpreted with the following equation: 
=
actual
n
reported
 T
actual
T
009
.
where: 
T
reported
T
n
Temperatures are in Kelvins or °C + 273.15. 
= reported temperature in temperature register. 
actual
= actual remote diode temperature. 
= selected diode’s non-ideality factor,
actual
. 
nf
This equation assumes that the series resistance of the 
remote diode 4.52
. 
Although the temperature error caused by non-ideality 
difference is directly proportional to the difference from 1.009, 
but a small difference in non-ideality results in a relatively 
large difference in temperature reading. For example, if there 
were a ±1% tolerance in the non-Ideality of a diode it would 
result in a ±2.7 degree difference (at 0°C) in the result (0.01 x 
273.15). 
This difference varies with temperature such that a fixed 
offset value may only be used over a very narrow range. 
Typical correction method required when measuring a wide 
range of temperature values is to scale the temperature 
reading in the host firmware. 
Part 
nf
 Min 
nf
 Nom 
nf
 Max
Series
Res 
Pentium III 
(CPUID 68h) 
Pentium 4, 
130nM 
Pentium 4,  90nM 
Pentium 4,  65nM 
Intel Pentium M 
2N3904 
1.0057 
1.008 
1.0125 
1.001 
1.002 
1.003 
3.64 
1.011 
1.009 
1.0022 
1.0046 
3.33 
4.52 
3.06 
0.6 
1.000 
1.0015 
1.003 
1.050 
1.0029 
1.005 
Table 5 Representative CPU Thermal Diode and 
Transistor Non-Ideality Factors 
CPU or ASIC Substrate Remote Diodes 
A substrate diode is a parasitic PNP transistor that has its 
collector tied to ground through the substrate and the base 
(D-) and emitter (D+) brought out to pins. Connection to 
these pins is shown in Figure 16 CPU Remote Diode 
Connection. 
The 
non-ideality 
Representative CPU Thermal Diode and Transistor Non-
Ideality Factors include the effects of any package resistance 
and represent the value seen from the CPU socket. The 
temperature indicated will need to be compensated for the 
departure from a non-ideality of 1.0046 and series resistance 
of 0.6
 . 
figures 
in 
Table 
5 
Figure 16 CPU Remote Diode Connection 
Discrete Remote Diodes 
When sensing temperatures other than the CPU or GPU 
substrate, an NPN or PNP transistor may be used. Most 
commonly used are the 2N3904 and 2N3906. These have 
characteristics similar to the CPU substrate diode with non-
ideality around 1.0046. They are connected with base to 
collector shorted as shown in Figure 17 Discrete Remote 
Diode Connection.  
D+ 
D- 
CPU 
aSC7521
Substrate