Output clamp and current limiter for amplifier
AssigneepSemi Corporation
InventorChristopher C. Murphy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and devices for clamping an output of an amplifier stage of an amplifier are presented. According to one aspect, a clamp sense circuit senses a voltage at a node of an internal stage of the amplifier. The clamp sense circuit senses a region of operation of the clamp circuit and correspondingly controls a current limiter that is introduced in the amplifier to limit a current through the internal stage of the amplifier. Limiting the current in turn causes limiting a current path from a clamp circuit through the output of the amplifier stage. According to another aspect, the clamp sense circuit is a replica of the amplifier stage of the amplifier, the output of the amplifier stage coupled to the clamp circuit, and an output of the replica decoupled from the clamp circuit.
Claims23
A circuit, comprising:
- an amplifier comprising two or more cascaded stages;
- a clamp sense circuit coupled to a sensing node of the amplifier;
- and
- a current limiter comprising two terminals in series-connection with a first current conduction path of a first stage of the two or more cascaded stages,
- wherein
- the clamp sense circuit is configured to control the current limiter to limit a current through the first current conduction path of the first stage based on a voltage at the sensing node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.