Patent ID: 11916544
Assignee: INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AUSTRIA AG
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 19:
20. A method of driving a power transistor to drive a load, the power transistor includes a control terminal and is configured to receive a control voltage at the control terminal and conduct a load current based on the control voltage, the method comprising:
comparing, by an overcurrent monitoring circuit, a measurement signal that is representative of the load current to a comparator threshold that corresponds to an overcurrent threshold;
generating, by the overcurrent monitoring circuit, a first fault signal in response to the measurement signal exceeding the comparator threshold for a first time interval;
generating, by the overcurrent monitoring circuit, a second fault signal in response to the measurement signal exceeding the comparator threshold for a second time interval, wherein the second time interval is greater than the first time interval;
regulating, by a gate driver circuit, the control voltage to drive the power transistor between switching states to control the load current, including regulating the control voltage to turn off the power transistor in response to the overcurrent monitoring circuit generating the second fault signal; and
in response to the overcurrent monitoring circuit generating the first fault signal, adjusting, by a current limiting circuit, the control voltage to an adjusted voltage level in order to limit the load current to a reduced current level that is preconfigured to be greater than the overcurrent threshold, wherein the adjusted voltage level is sufficient to maintain the power transistor in an on-state.