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US 6,351,361 B1Granted
Overcurrent protection device
AssigneeSony Chemicals Corp.
InventorsMasami Kawazu, Hisaya Tamura, Norikazu Iwasaki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrical current protection device capable of highly safe and rapid shutoff or suppression of electric current is disclosed. In addition to internal electrical current protection capabilities, external environmental triggers are also provided. The current protection device may include substrate-based thermal metallic fuse, PTC current-suppressing protection, thermal heat elements, integrated-circuit based voltage-drop detector, an FET-based current switch, and an external detector for environmental sensing and trigger.
Claims8
An overcurrent protection device, comprising:
- a substrate;
- a heating element, and at least one of a low-melting metal element and a PTC element formed on the substrate, the low-melting metal element being melted or the PTC element being tripped by heat of the heating element;
- a first detector element for detecting a voltage drop in one of two power lines supplying power to a circuit to be protected;
- and
- a switching element for passing a large electric current through the heating element to rapidly heat the heating element based on a voltage drop quantity detected by the first detector element.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.