The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 23, 1996
Filed:
Oct. 05, 1994
Applicant:
Inventors:
Peter J Bills, Grosse Pointe, MI (US);
Peter Langer, Troy, MI (US);
Assignee:
Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI (US);
Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H02H / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
361 93 ; 361 98 ; 307116 ; 371 48 ;
Abstract
A method and circuit is provided which controls and monitors a load through a single I/O pin of a microprocessor. A predriver circuit including a level shifter responds to a driver control signal from the microprocessor to control energization of a power driver connected in a load circuit. The predriver circuit also includes a monitor stage for detecting fault conditions of the load circuit. The output of the monitor stage is connected with the I/O pin which is configured as either an input or an output pin under microprocessor program control.