Saturation detection circuits
AssigneeCambridge Semiconductor Limited
InventorsVinod A. Lalithambika, Niek van der Dui{grave over (j)}n Schouten, A. Johannes Schiff
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Abstract
This invention generally relates to saturation detection circuits, in embodiments for substantially lossless detection of saturation of power switches in power integrated circuits. We describe a saturation detection circuit for detecting saturation of a power semiconductor device, the circuit including a said power semiconductor device having an input terminal and an output terminal, a second semiconductor device connected across said input and output terminals of the power semiconductor device, and a circuit responsive to a current flowing through the second semiconductor device to detect the saturation of the power semiconductor device.
Claims2
A saturation detection circuit for detecting saturation of a first semiconductor device, the circuit comprising:
- a second semiconductor device for connection across input and output terminals of said first semiconductor device to provide a sensing current responsive to a voltage across said first semiconductor device;
- a third semiconductor device substantially matched to said second semiconductor device to generate a reference current;
- and
- a comparator to compare signals derived from said sensing current and said reference current to detect saturation of said first semiconductor device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.