Analog Circuit Design Volume Three

Chapter 250

Electronic circuit breaker in small DFN package eliminates sense resistor

S.H. Lim

Abstract

An electronic circuit breaker in a small DFN package that eliminates the need for a sense resistor is described.

Keywords

Electronic circuit breaker

LTC4213

Introduction

Traditionally, an electronic circuit breaker (ECB) comprises a MOSFET, a MOSFET controller and a current sense resistor. The LTC4213 does away with the sense resistor by using the R_DS(ON) of the external MOSFET. The result is a simple, small solution that offers a significant low insertion loss advantage at low operating load voltage. The LTC4213 features two circuit breaking responses to varying overload conditions with three selectable trip thresholds and a high ...