Patent ID: 7031130

Claim:
A protection device for protecting a voltage source and a load supplied with power by said voltage source, comprising: a switching circuit interposed on a power supply bus between said voltage source and said load and associated with a current limiting circuit, said current limiting circuit comprising a unit for measuring the current supplied by said source and a control unit for controlling the switching circuit so as to prevent the current from exceeding a predefined current threshold, said switching circuit comprising a MOSFET transistor mounted in series on a positive feeding line of the power supply bus coupling said voltage source to said load, said MOSFET transistor having a gate which is supplied with power by said control unit, which acts as a current source on a biasing impedance connected to the MOSFET gate, a voltage limiting circuit adapted to control said switching circuit so as to prevent the voltage supplied to said load from exceeding a predefined voltage threshold, said MOSFET transistor being maintained in a linear operating mode for preventing current and voltage applied to said load from exceeding said predefined current and voltages thresholds, and a trigger circuit for turning the MOSFET transistor off after a given operating time in its linear operating mode.