Infineon Technologies Ag

Heinrich Trebo

Rory Dickman

Martin Kaltenegger

Peter Lang

Gunter Schwarzberger

Methods and apparatuses for detection of a presence of a load. A method may include, for example, applying and subsequently removing a supply voltage across the pair of nodes, comparing an electrical potential at one of the pair of nodes at a time after the supply voltage is removed with a reference value, and generating a signal having a value that depends upon an outcome of the comparison.

Method for detection of the presence of a load and drive circuit

A driver circuit for providing an output signal for switching an electrical load on and off has a field-effect transistor having a gate terminal and an output for providing the output signal to the electrical load, a buffer circuit connected to the gate terminal of the field-effect transistor to impress a charge change current on the gate terminal of the field-effect transistor based on a drive signal, and a comparator having a first input for receiving the gate voltage and a second input for receiving the output signal to determine whether the gate voltage and the output voltage fulfill a predetermined relationship with respect to each other, and to provide the drive signal to the buffer circuit so that the charge change current is changed in magnitude when the predetermined relationship is fulfilled as compared to the charge change current when the predetermined relationship is not fulfilled.

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Hitzendorf, Austria

Heinrich Trebo