CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR PREVENTING THE GENERATION OF EXCESSIVE HIGH VOLTAGE

摘要

A high voltage protection circuit comprises a high voltage generator. A means provides a sensed signal representing the output of the high voltage circuit. A memory contains a representation of a reference value. The reference value is associated with the maximum high voltage allowed in a certain operating mode of a device supplied with high voltage from the high voltage generator. Further, there is a comparator for comparing the sensed signal with the reference signal to detect a fault situation. The means for developing a signal representing the output high voltage is programmable. In this way different switching levels of the comparator are selectable even though the reference signal remains unchanged.