Patent ID: 7672106

Claim:
A method for controlling a solid state, smart, high side driver for controlling the application of electrical power from a DC electrical source to a load when the load has a transient characteristic that the load increases in electrical impedance following the application of power to the load, the high side driver having overcurrent and driver temperature sensing and protection circuits, a control input terminal for applying an ON state or an OFF state command to the high side driver and a power output terminal for connection to the electrical load, the method comprising: (a) sensing the output terminal of the high side driver for detecting that the high side driver has turned to an OFF state; and (b) in response to the coexistence of an ON command applied to the control input of the high side driver and the output terminal of the high side driver switching to an OFF state, applying an OFF command to the control input of the high side driver, maintaining the OFF command at the control input of the high side driver for a selected cooling time interval, and applying an ON command to the control input of the high side driver after the selected cooling time interval.