Overvoltage protection circuit with digital control
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorsJan Roelof Westra, Jan Mulder, Qiongna Zhang, Jeffrey Allan Riley, Davide Vecchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A device for digitally protecting against an overvoltage event may include a front-end circuit, an overvoltage protection circuit, and a protection switch. The protection switch may be coupled to the overvoltage protection circuit and may be configured to decouple the front-end circuit from an external medium, in response to a clamp signal. The overvoltage protection circuit may be configured to detect the overvoltage event at one or more nodes of a circuit. In response to the detection of the overvoltage event, the overvoltage protection circuit may generate the clamp signal to activate the protection switch.
Claims20
A device comprising:
- a front-end circuit of a wireless communication circuit capable of being coupled to a radio-frequency (RF) receiving external medium;
- an overvoltage protection circuit;
- and
- a protection switch coupled to the overvoltage protection circuit and operable to decouple the front-end circuit from the RF receiving external medium so as to prevent an overvoltage from reaching the front-end circuit from the RF receiving external medium, in response to a switch signal,
- wherein the overvoltage protection circuit is configured to detect an overvoltage event at one or more nodes of a circuit, and in response to the detection of an overvoltage event, generate the switch signal to activate the protection switch.
A method comprising:
- detecting an overvoltage event at one or more nodes of a circuit of a wireless communication circuit;
- generating, in response to the detection of the overvoltage event, a switch signal;
- and
- decoupling the circuit from a radio-frequency (RF) receiving external medium via a switch, in response to the switch signal,
- wherein the circuit is capable of being coupled to the RF receiving external medium via the switch, and wherein decoupling prevents an overvoltage to reach a front-end circuit of a wireless communication circuit from the RF receiving external medium.
A communication apparatus comprising:
- a circuit capable of being coupled to a radio-frequency (RF) receiving external medium;
- and
- a digital protection circuit comprising:
- an overvoltage protection circuit;
- and
- a protection switch coupled to the overvoltage protection circuit and operable to decouple the circuit from the RF receiving external medium so as to prevent an overvoltage from reaching a front-end circuit from the RF receiving external medium, in response to a switch signal,
- wherein the overvoltage protection circuit is configured to detect an overvoltage event at one or more nodes of the circuit, and in response to the detection of the overvoltage event, generate the switch signal to activate the protection switch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.