Method for regulating supply voltage

Abstract

According to the method for regulating the supply voltage of an electronic circuit a regulating element with variable resistivity and the outer supply voltage being applied to an input terminal of said regulating element is controlled by an amplified difference between a reference voltage and a part of a regulated supply voltage whereat at first an instant, on which the regulating circuit and the electronic circuit start operating, is detected, and then such value of the reference voltage is set on said instant that the regulated supply voltage will equal a maximum allowable supply voltage of the electronic circuit and the supplied electronic circuit puts itself in a state of a maximum current consumption. Then an operating voltage drop across said regulating element is measured at regular time intervals and the reference voltage is then each time reduced by one degree until said operating voltage drop is below or equals a chosen most appropriate value of said operating voltage drop. The supplied electronic circuit puts itself in a state of a normal current consumption when said operating voltage drop has exceeded the chosen most appropriate value of said voltage drop. According to a variant embodiment the operating voltage drop is then uninterruptedly measured and, if its value decreases below a chosen minimum value of said operating voltage drop due to a disturbance in the outer supply voltage, a flag is set in a memory in the case of a disturbance potentially dangerous to the electronic circuit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.