Patent · US Expired

Low-power semiconductor voltage comparator with hysteresis

US5426386A · kind A · utility

22Cited by
23References
24Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 21, 1992
Grant dateJun 20, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 21, 2012

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03K3/3565
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The low power voltage comparator with hysteresis includes a comparator (10) that is operable to receive the output from a battery (14) on the positive input thereof and the output of a battery (16) on the negative input thereof. An offset circuit (22) is provided in series with the voltage of the battery (14) and the comparator (10), and an offset circuit (24) is provided between the battery (16) and the comparator (10). The offset circuits (22) and (24) are adjustable by a hysteresis control circuit (26) to offset the voltage thereof for the non-selected battery to be higher than that for the selected battery such that the voltage drop across the offset for the non-selected battery is greater than that for the selected battery. When the voltage on the selected battery falls below the offset voltage of the non-selected battery, the hysteresis control then decreases the offset upon selecting the other battery and increases the offset or the battery that is deselected. The offset circuits (22) and (24) each comprise primary resistive elements (26) and (36) which are connected through a current sink (50) to ground. The selection process by the hysteresis control circuit (26) is operab…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.