Methods and apparatus for implementing over-temperature fault protection in wearable devices and other electronic devices
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorDevin Cass
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Implementing over-temperature fault protection in wearable devices and other electronic devices may be performed using an example apparatus including a voltage source; a thermistor bias network to, when enabled, output a thermistor voltage; an over-temperature determiner to enable the thermistor bias network; and, when the thermistor voltage corresponds to a temperature above a maximum temperature threshold, output a fault; and an isolation transistor to couple the voltage source to a system; and when the over-temperature determiner outputs the fault, decouple the voltage source from the system.
Claims17
An apparatus comprising:
- a thermistor bias network to, when enabled, output a thermistor voltage corresponding to a temperature of a thermistor in the thermistor bias network;
- an over-temperature determiner to:
- toggle the thermistor bias network on and off at a first frequency;
- when the temperature corresponding to the thermistor voltage exhibits a rate of increase above a rate threshold, toggle the thermistor bias network on and off at a second frequency, the second frequency higher than the first frequency;
- and
- when the thermistor voltage corresponding to the temperature exceeds a maximum temperature threshold, output a fault;
- and
- an isolation transistor to:
- couple a voltage source to a system;
- and
- when the over-temperature determiner outputs the fault, decouple the voltage source from the system.
An apparatus comprising:
- a comparator to provide an output voltage based on a comparison of a thermistor voltage corresponding to a temperature of a thermistor in a thermistor bias circuit to a reference voltage;
- a sequence generator to generate a bit sequence;
- a bit shifter to generate a shifted bit sequence by shifting the bit sequence;
- a logic gate to:
- when at least one of the bit sequence or the shifted bit sequence is a first voltage, output a second voltage to (A) enable the thermistor bias circuit to output the thermistor voltage and (B) enable the comparator, when the thermistor voltage is below a first threshold, the bit sequence of the sequence generator is to cause the logic gate to enable the thermistor bias circuit at a first frequency, when the thermistor voltage is above the first threshold, the bit sequence of the sequence generator is to cause the logic gate to enable the thermistor bias circuit at a second frequency greater than the first frequency;
- and
- a fault determiner to, when the shifted bit sequence is the first voltage and the thermistor voltage indicates the temperature of the thermistor is above a maximum temperature threshold, output a fault.
A method comprising:
- toggling a thermistor bias circuit on and off at a first frequency;
- when the thermistor bias circuit is enabled, receiving a thermistor voltage from the thermistor bias circuit;
- when a temperature corresponding to the thermistor voltage exhibits a rate of increase above a rate threshold, toggling the thermistor bias circuit on and off at a second frequency, the second frequency higher than the first frequency;
- and
- when the thermistor voltage corresponds to the temperature being above a maximum temperature threshold, decoupling a voltage source from a system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.