Patent ID: 7135842

Claim:
A regulated power source for supplying power to an external circuit, comprising: a voltage sensing circuit coupled to the external circuit for identifying a maximum voltage drop amongst a plurality of voltage drops in the external circuit by sensing the plurality of voltage drops at a plurality of sense points within the external circuit; and a voltage regulator having a first input node coupled to an output node of the voltage sensing circuit, and a second input node connected to a predetermined reference voltage, wherein the voltage regulator supplies power to the external circuit in accordance with the maximum voltage drop identified by the voltage sensing circuit; wherein the voltage sensing circuit comprises: a comparator having a first input coupled to a first sense point of the external circuit, a second input coupled to a second sense point of the external circuit, and an output, the comparator circuit sensing a lower one of the voltages at the first and second inputs; a first switch connected to the comparator output, an output node of the first switch providing the output of the voltage sensing circuit when the voltage at the comparator first input is less than the voltage at the comparator second input; an inverter having an input connected to the comparator output; and a second switch connected to an output of the inverter, an output node of the second switch providing the output of the voltage sensing circuit when the voltage at the comparator second input is less than the voltage at the comparator first input.