Integrated circuit with on-state diagnosis for driver channels
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics S.r.l.
InventorsGaudenzia BAGNATI, Stefano CASTORINA, Valerio BENDOTTI
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An integrated circuit includes a plurality of power transistor driver channels for driving external loads. The driver channels can be selectively configured as high-side (HS) or low-side (LS) driver channels. The integrated circuit includes, for each driver channel, a respective on-state test circuit and a respective controller. The on-state test circuits can be selectively configured to test for HS overcurrent conditions, LS overcurrent conditions, HS open load conditions, and LS open load conditions.
Claims20
An integrated circuit, comprising:
- a driver channel configured to be selectively operated in a high-side driver mode or a low-side driver mode and including:
- a power transistor;
- a drain output terminal coupled to a drain of the power transistor;
- and
- a source output terminal coupled to a source of the power transistor;
- an on-state test circuit coupled to the drain output terminal and the source output terminal and including a plurality of switches;
- and
- a control circuit coupled to the on-state test circuit and configured to control the plurality of switches to place the on-state test circuit in a high-side overcurrent testing mode or a low-side overcurrent testing mode.
An integrated circuit, comprising:
- a driver channel configured to be selectively operated in a high-side driver mode or a low-side driver mode;
- and
- an on-state test circuit coupled to the driver channel and including a first comparator and configured to be selectively operated in a high-side overcurrent testing mode and a low-side overcurrent testing mode, wherein the on-state test circuit is configured to detect a high-side overcurrent condition of the driver channel based on the first comparator in the high-side overcurrent testing mode and to detect a low-side overcurrent condition of the driver channel based on the first comparator in the low-side overcurrent testing mode.
A method, comprising:
- operating a driver channel of an integrated circuit by driving a gate terminal of a power transistor of the driver channel;
- detecting whether a high-side overcurrent condition is present at the driver channel based on an output of a first comparator of an on-state testing circuit in a high-side overcurrent testing mode of the on-state testing circuit;
- and
- detecting whether a low-side overcurrent condition is present at the driver channel based on the output of the first comparator of the on-state testing circuit in a low-side overcurrent testing mode of the on-state testing circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.