Controller for semiconductor device
AssigneeDenso Corporation
InventorKoji Nakamura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A semiconductor device controller includes a current supply control unit for controlling a conduction state of a semiconductor device connected to a load in response to a control signal to supply current to the load, a current level judging unit for comparing one or more switching judgment values set in an area smaller than an overcurrent judgment value with current detected by a current detecting unit to carry out a current level judgment and a time constant changing unit for changing the circuit time constant of the input signal processing circuit in accordance with a judgment result by the current level judging unit.
Claims11
A semiconductor device controller comprising:
- an input signal processing circuit for carrying out signal processing of a pulse signal input as a current supply instruction from the outside on the basis of a circuit time constant to generate and output a control signal;
- a current supply control unit for controlling a conduction state of a semiconductor device connected to a load in series in response to the control signal to supply current to the load;
- a current detecting unit for detecting current flowing in the load;
- an overcurrent judging unit for comparing the current detected by the current detecting unit with an overcurrent judgment value to carry out an overcurrent judgment;
- a current limiting unit for limiting current to be supplied to the load through the semiconductor device by the current supply control unit when the overcurrent judgment is carried out by the overcurrent judging unit;
- a current level judging unit for comparing one or more switching judgment values set in an area smaller than the overcurrent judgment value with the current detected by the current detecting unit to carry out a current level judgment;
- and
- a time constant changing unit for changing the circuit time constant of the input signal processing circuit in accordance with a judgment result by the current level judging unit.
A semiconductor device controller comprising:
- an input signal processing circuit for carrying out signal processing of a pulse signal input as a current supply instruction from the outside on the basis of a circuit time constant to generate and output a control signal;
- a current supply control unit for controlling a conduction state of a semiconductor device connected to a load in series in response to the control signal to supply current to the load;
- current detecting unit for detecting current flowing in the load;
- an overcurrent judging unit for comparing the current detected by the current detecting unit with an overcurrent judgment value to carry out an overcurrent judgment;
- a current limiting unit for limiting current to be supplied to the load through the semiconductor device by the current supply control unit when the overcurrent judgment is carried out by the overcurrent judging unit;
- an instruction variation amount monitoring unit for monitoring a variation amount of the current supply instruction;
- and
- a time constant changing unit for changing the circuit time constant of the input signal processing circuit in accordance with the monitoring result of the instruction variation amount monitoring unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.