Patent · US Active

Current limiting load switch with dynamically generated tracking reference voltage

US7728655B2 · kind B2 · utility

6Cited by
1References
11Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 10, 2008
Grant dateJun 1, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 10, 2028

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03K17/0822
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A current limiting load switch for bridging supply Vss and load with a reference voltage VRdt dynamically generated by a VRdt-generator is proposed. It includes: A pair of power FET and sense FET interconnected in split-current configuration. The FET pair develops a load voltage while limiting load current Iload to a preset maximum Imax. The FET pair is sized to draw device currents Ipower and Is with RATIOI=Is/Ipower<<1. The sense FET high-side terminal is coupled to Vss through a sense resistor Rsense developing a sense voltage Vs=Is×Rsense. A current limiting amplifier with inputs connected to VRdt and Vs and output controlling FET pair closing a current limiting feedback loop. The VRdt-generator dynamically adjusts VRdt concurrent and compensatory with an undesirable effect of changing RATIOI caused by the sense FET operational transition thus eliminating a transitional overshoot of Iload beyond Imax.

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