Texas Instruments Corporation

Emmanuel Osei Boakye

Juergen Luebbe

Mark Benjamin Welty

Zhao Fang

Roland Karl Son

Eddie W Yu

A surge protection device for providing bidirectional detections of one or more surge events. The device has low dynamic resistance during a surge protection mode, and it conducts ultra-low leakage current outside of the surge protection mode. In one implementation, the device includes first and second power transistors, a sensing circuit, and a driver circuit. The first power transistor includes a first source terminal that is coupled to the substrate, and the second power transistor includes a second source terminal that is coupled to the substrate. The sensing circuit is configured to detect a voltage of the first pin relative to the second pin and generate a sense signal when the voltage exceeds a threshold. The driver circuit is configured to generate a driver signal based on the sense signal and output the driver signal to at least one of the first or second gate terminal.

Bidirectional precision surge clamp with near-zero dynamic resistance and ultra-low leakage current

In described examples, a transistor has: a source and a drain coupled between a supply voltage and an output terminal; and a gate terminal. A charge pump has: an output node coupled to the gate terminal; and a clock input. An oscillator is coupled to generate a clock signal. A clock enable circuit is coupled to: receive the clock signal; and selectively output the clock signal to the clock input, responsive to an enable signal. A comparator is coupled to output the enable signal in response to a comparison between a reference current and a current through a series resistor. The series resistor is coupled to the gate terminal.

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Dallas, TX, United States of America

Emmanuel Osei Boakye