Patent ID: 7030700

Claim:
A voltage level detector for protection control of a power amplifier comprising: an output block including a power transistor and an output terminal connected to a load; a bias block including a standby pin and being allowed to bias other blocks of the power amplifier in activated states, especially the power transistor conductive, when the standby pin stays active; a Area-of-Safe-Operation monitoring block for detecting the operation of the power transistor outside their Area of Safe Operation and issuing a cutoff signal; a first fault detection block for detecting fault conditions of the power transistor and the output terminal and issuing the cutoff signal; and a protection switch block for cutting off the output block from the bias block and connecting the first fault detection block to the bias block during reception of the cutoff signal; said voltage level detector comprising: a second fault detection block for monitoring the voltage level at the standby pin during power-up, and upon detection of the voltage level reaching a threshold level, detecting fault conditions of the power transistor and the output terminal; and a cutoff signal generating block for issuing the cutoff signal when the second fault detection block detects a fault condition of one of the power transistor and the output terminal.