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:
Oct. 19, 2004
Filed:
Apr. 19, 2001
Vadim V. Ivanov, Tucson, AZ (US);
David R. Baum, Tucson, AZ (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
Over-current protection is accomplished in an output transistor (MP) of an electronic circuit wherein an input signal (Vgatedrive) Is Applying to a first conductor ( ) coupled to a gate of the output transistor to cause an output current (Iout) to flow through the output transistor and an output terminal ( ) of the electronic circuit. A limit voltage (V ) who is applied to an input ( ) of a voltage clamping circuit ( ) to cause a clamping current to flow in the first conductor ( ) as needed to prevent the magnitude of the input signal (Vgatedrive) from being less than the magnitude of the limit voltage (V ) so that the output current (Iout) is limited to a maximum current limit determined by the limit voltage (V ). A control signal (I /n) is applied to an input of a current-to-voltage conversion circuit ( ) to cause the current-to-voltage conversion circuit to produce the limit voltage (V ), which is applied to an emitter of a first transistor (Q ) having a collector in base connected to a bias current source (I ). The resulting voltage on a base of the first transistor is applied to a base of a second transistor (Q ), and the input signal (Vgatedrive) is applied to the first conductor ( ).