Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Denso Corporation

Ahmed Hamada

Masahiko Ito

Pierre Turpin

Kamel Abouda

Erwan Hemon

Mohammed Mansri

An airbag apparatus connected with a battery includes activation circuits each of which has a squib and a high-side switching element, a safing switching element connected between the battery and the activation circuits, a safing switch control circuit controlling the safing switching element to provide a target voltage to the activation circuits, a terminal voltage acquiring circuit that acquires a terminal voltage of each squib, and a target voltage setting circuit that sets the target voltage. When a maximum-terminal voltage is lower than a reference voltage, the target voltage setting circuit sets the target voltage to be equal to the reference voltage. When the maximum-terminal voltage is higher than the reference voltage, the target voltage setting circuit sets the target voltage to correspond to the maximum-terminal voltage so that a reverse current is avoided in the high-side switching element.

Airbag Apparatus

A driver circuit is provided that receives an ON or OFF logic control signal and further has: an output arranged to be connected to a load; a power switch, having a control terminal with a first current terminal connected to a first power supply and a second current terminal arranged to be connected to the output to drive the load; a control circuit of a first type arranged between the control terminal of the power switch and a second power supply; and a control circuit of a second type, arranged to couple the control terminal of the power switch to the first power supply when the control signal is in the OFF state.

High side driver circuit

Growing community of inventors

Toulouse, France

Ahmed Hamada