High speed, large-current power control circuit
AssigneeSony/Tektronix Corporation
InventorsKatsuhisa Kato, Toshihiko Onozawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A power control circuit for replacing a current limiting fuse in an electrical protection circuit or for switching large currents rapidly has an array of transistors, each having an identical characteristic to each other and to a device under test, to provide parallel current paths. All of the rows of the transistor array are biased "on" except for a predetermined row. A gate signal is generated to control the "on/off" state of the transistors in the predetermined row, the gate signal being a function of the presence of excessive current--holding the predetermined row of transistors biased "on" in normal operation, and turning the predetermined row of transistors "off" when excessive current is detected.
Claims6
A power control circuit for controlling the provision of electric power to a load comprising:
- a switching device array having a first plurality of rows and a second plurality of columns formed by coupling switching devices in series, one from each row, to produce each column of switching devices in the array so that the columns provide a number of parallel current paths between a source voltage and the load;
- means for generating a gate signal for controlling an "on" or "off" state simultaneously of each switching device in a predetermined row of the switching device array;
- and
- means for biasing the switching devices in rows, other than the predetermined row, in the "on" state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.