Patent ID: 7813094

Claim:
An adaptive current limiter comprising: a first input node and a second input node; a circuit breaker; a sensing resistor coupling said first input node to said circuit breaker; a variable reference voltage generator coupled between said first input node and said second input node which develops a first reference voltage including a step with exponential decay in response to a transient surge; a first comparator having a first input node coupled to a circuit breaker side of said sensing resistor and a second input node coupled to said variable reference voltage, said comparator having a variable circuit breaker voltage output coupled to said circuit breaker, said variable circuit breaker voltage providing a current limit set point for said circuit breaker; whereby said current limit set point for said circuit breaker is temporarily increased during a transient surge; and a second comparator coupled to said second variable reference voltage which is faster than said first comparator to provide a higher transient current limit set point for said circuit breaker.