Enhanced charger over voltage protection FET
AssigneeTexas Instruments Deutschland GmbH
InventorsIvo Huber, Andreas Fees
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An integrated battery charger protection circuit incorporates a charge control power FET for series connection in the battery load current path from a DC supply input terminal to a controlled DC output terminal. The circuit has a gate drive input terminal connected to the gate of the charge control power FET and further includes protective circuitry adapted to disable the DC output terminal in a fault condition detected within the integrated circuit. The controlled DC output terminal and the gate drive input terminal are connectable to the external charge control host circuit the same way as corresponding terminals of a discrete power FET, in particular of p-channel type.
Claims20
In a battery powered device having a battery charge control circuit for over-voltage and over-current protection for at least one power FET in series with a battery load current path from a DC supply input terminal to a controlled DC output, an integrated circuit replacement for the at least one discrete power FET for providing enhanced protection, comprising:
- a charge control power FET internal to the integrated circuit couplable between a source of DC power and a battery to be charged, the charge control power FET having a gate couplable to a gate drive output of a control host circuit, the control host circuit controlling the charging of the battery;
- a protective circuit for disabling the charge control power FET if a fault condition is detected by the integrated circuit, wherein the control host circuit is coupled to the integrated circuit in the same manner as corresponding terminals of a at least one of the replaced power FETs and wherein the control host circuit controls battery charging using same signals that are usable to control the replaced FETs wherein over voltage and over current protection for the at least one FET is provided.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.