Marvell International Limited

Marvellworld Trade Ltd.

Alejandro Acuna Munoz

Jose Luis Gonzalez Moreno

Antonio Pairet Molina

Jose Miguel Duart Gomez

Mario Bruno Navarro Primo

Pedro Antonio Martinez Corisco

Riccardo Tonietto

In one embodiment, a circuit couples an integrated circuit to a powerline and protects the integrated circuit from overvoltage noise. In one example, the integrated circuit comprises a two-port differential transceiver. Respective Schottky diodes couple the ports to a power supply and reference, so one diode for each port conducts current in forward bias if an applied voltage exceeds a respective voltage reference plus the forward voltage of that diode. A respective end of a first transformer winding feeds each input port. Respective ends of a second transformer winding couple to capacitors that couple with the powerline. Back-to-back zener diodes are connected between the ends of the second winding. A zener diode with a breakdown voltage set based on the power supply voltage plus a margin is coupled between the power supply and ground so that the power supply voltage does not exceed a desired value plus the margin.

Circuits and methods for protecting integrated circuits from powerline noise

A system for detecting a Zero Crossing point is provided. The system includes: a coupling unit connected between a high voltage side and a low voltage side of the system; and a zero crossing detector connected to the high voltage side and configured to divide a filtered mains voltage signal and to generate an output signal that indicates a zero crossing point of the filtered mains voltage signal.

Zero crossing detector (ZCD) circuit

Growing community of inventors

Paterna, Spain

Alejandro Acuna Munoz