Patent ID: 11881857
Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
Field: Basic communication processes (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 20:
21. A power switching system comprising:
a switch module including a power transistor and a transistor temperature sensor configured to measure a transistor temperature of the power transistor; and
a gate driver coupled to the switch module, the gate driver including:
a gate-driver temperature sensor configured to measure a gate-driver temperature of the gate driver;
a gate-driver temperature sense circuit configured to output an internal fault signal based on the gate-driver temperature;
a transistor temperature sense circuit configured to receive the transistor temperature from the transistor temperature sensor and to output an external fault signal based on the transistor temperature;
a transceiver configured to communicate a combined signal corresponding to the internal fault signal and the external fault signal over a shared communication channel across an isolation barrier of the gate driver;
a first temperature sense pin coupled to the transistor temperature sensor;
a second temperature sense pin; and
a disable circuit configured to disable the second temperature sense pin while it is not coupled to a second temperature sensor to reduce a power consumed by the gate driver.