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US 2017/0248646 A1Published application
Method and Device for Short Circuit Detection in Power Semiconductor Switches
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorsAnton Mauder, Stefan Hain, Mark-Matthias Bakran
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Abstract
Devices and methods are provided, which detect a short circuit condition related to a semiconductor switch. A short circuit condition may be determined when a control signal of the switch exceeds a first reference, and a change of load current of the switch exceeds a second reference.
Claims20
A device, comprising:
- a semiconductor switch comprising a control terminal and at least two load terminals;
- and
- an evaluation circuit configured to detect a short circuit condition based on a magnitude of a signal at the control terminal and based at least in part on a magnitude of a variation of a load current via the at least two load terminals.
A device, comprising:
- a power transistor comprising a first load terminal,
- a second terminal and a control terminal;
- a first comparator comprising a first input coupled with the control terminal and a second input to be coupled with a first reference voltage;
- a second comparator comprising a first input coupled with the second load terminal and a second input to be coupled with a second reference voltage;
- and
- an AND gate comprising a first input coupled with an output of the first comparator and a second input coupled with an output of the second comparator.
3 more elements
A method of short circuit detection, the method comprising:
- providing a first voltage at a control terminal of a semiconductor switch,
- providing a second voltage indicative of a load current change of the semiconductor switch, and
- detecting a short circuit condition based on a magnitude of a first voltage and of the second voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.