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US 9,753,060 B2Granted
Apparatus with device with fault detection protection
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics (Research & Development) Limited
InventorShatabda Saha
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A device such as a laser diode is provided with a monitoring arrangement. The monitoring arrangement has voltage to current converters arranged to provide respectively currents which are proportional to the respective voltages on an anode and on a cathode of the laser diode. The monitoring arrangement provides a first output signal when the laser diode is on too long. That output signal is used to cause the laser diode to be switched off.
Claims15
An apparatus comprising:
- a device configured to emit a photon and to be switched on and off by a driver circuit;
- a first voltage-to-current circuit configured to provide a first current dependent on a voltage at a first node of the device;
- a second voltage-to-current circuit configured to provide a second current dependent on a voltage at a second node of the device;
- a comparator configured to be responsive to the first current and the second current and to generate a first output when the device is switched on;
- and
- a monitoring circuit having an input coupled to an output of the comparator, the monitoring circuit being configured to receive the first output and to generate a control signal in response to the first output being received for greater than a threshold period of time, the control signal being configured to cause the driver circuit to switch off the device.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.