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When semiconductor material was first manufactured and used for diodes and transistors, it was found that the material also changed the amount of voltage across the PN junction when it's forward biased as the temperature changes. The early attempts at using the semiconductor material were not too successful because impurities in the material made its response nonlinear. Today with modern manufacturing technology, the solid-state material used in making ICs provides a linear output response. The semiconductor material also provides a compact sensor when it's manufactured into an IC. The IC sensors are very small and shaped like typical small transistors, which allows them to be placed in printed circuit boards and other electronic circuits. Fig. 1 shows examples of these types of solid-state IC sensors.
Above: Fig. 1: Examples of solid-state IC temperature sensors.
