Short circuit protection device for an integrated circuit and a load connected thereto

摘要

A short circuit protection device for a unitary voltage gain signal transducer circuit (Gv) and for a load impedance (RL) coupled to the transducer circuit includes a first (A1) and a second (A2) threshold comparator circuit and an actuator circuit (ACT). The input terminals of the first comparator (A1) are coupled to the transducer circuit input and output terminals and the output terminal of the first comparator is coupled to an activation terminal of the actuator circuit. The input terminals of the second comparator (A2) are coupled to the ends of the load impedance and the output terminal is coupled to an inhibit terminal of the actuator circuit. A first output terminal of the actuator circuit is coupled to an inhibit terminal of the transducer circuit, while a second output terminal of the transducer circuit is used to deliver a small current I1 to the load impedance.