
OVERTEMPERATURE PROTECTION (OVT)
If the chip temperature exceeds T
h
(measured in
a central position in the chip) the chip deactivates
itself.
The followingactions are taken:
- all the output stages are forced in the ”three
state” condition, i.e. are disconnected from
the output pins; only the clamping diodes at
the outputs remain active;
- the signal Diag is activated(active low).
Normal operation is resumed as soon as (typically
after some seconds) the chip temperature moni-
tored goes back below T
h
-H
T
.
The different upper and lower thresholds with
hysteretic behavior, assure that no intermittent
conditionscan be generated.
UNDERVOLTAGE PROTECTION (UV)
The supply voltageis expectedto range from 11V
to 35V, even if its referencevalue is considered to
be 24V.
In this range the L6374 operatescorrectly.
Below 10.8V the overallsystem has to be consid-
ered not reliable.
Consequently the supply voltage is monitored
continuously and a signal, called UV, is internally
generatedand used.
The signal is ”on” as long as the supply voltage
does not reach the upper internal threshold of the
V
s
comparator(called V
sh
). The UV signaldisap-
pears above V
sh
.
Once the UV signal has been removed, the sup-
ply voltage must decrease below the lower
threshold (i.e. below V
sh
-H
ys1
) before it is turned
on again.
The hysteresis H
ys1
is provided to prevent inter-
mittent operation of the device at low supply volt-
ages that may have a superimposed ripple
around the averagevalue.
The UV signal inhibits the outputs,puttingthem in
three-state, but has no effect on the creation of
the reference voltages for the internal compara-
tors, nor on the continuous operation of the
charge-pumpcircuits.
DIAGNOSTIC LOGIC
The situations that are monitored and signalled
with the Diag outputpin are:
- current limit (OVC) in action; there are 8 indi-
vidual current limiting circuits, two per each
output, i.e. one per every output transistor;
they limit the current that can be either sour-
ced or sunk from each output, to a typical
value of 150mA, equalfor all of them;
- undervoltageprotection (UV);
- overtemperatureprotection (OVP);
The diagnostic signal is transmitted via an open
drain output (for ease of wired-or connection of
several such signals) and a low level represents
the presence of at least one of the monitoredcon-
ditions,mentionedabove.
PROGRAMMABLE DELAY
The current limiting circuits can be requested to
perform even in absence of a real fault condition,
for a short period, if the load is of capacitive na-
ture or if it is a filament lamp (that exhibits a very
low resistanceduring the initial heating phase).
To avoid the forwarding of misleading, short diag-
nostic pulses in coincidence with the intervention
of the current limiting circuits when operating on
capacitive loads, a delay of about 5
μ
s is inserted
on the signal path, between the ”O(jiān)R” of the cur-
rentlimit signals andits use as externaldiagnostic.
It takes about 1
μ
s to charge (or discharge) by
24V a capacitorof 5nF with a current of 120mA .
To implement longer delays (from the intervention
of one of the current limiting circuits to the activa-
tion of the diagnostic) an external capacitor can
be connectedbetween pin C3 and ground (pin C3
is otherwiseleft open).
The delay shall then be determinedby the ratio of
about 10 pF/
μ
s, using the value of the capaci-
tanceconnectedto the pin.
ANALOG INPUTS(I1,I2,I3,I4)
The input stage of each channel is a high im-
pedence comparator with
(200mV) for high noise immunity. Each compara-
tor has one input connected to all the others and
tied to a common pin Ref (Pin 11). If thispin is left
floating an internal precise band gap voltage ref-
erence (1.25V) is applied, otherwise these inputs
can be externally programmed by connecting an
external voltage source (from 0 to 5V) and the
currenton thispin is internallylimited to
±
20
μ
A.
The other input pin of each comparatorcan swing
from -7 to 35V.
For this reason it has been implemented the
structure shown in Figure 2 and the device can
also be usedas line receiver.
When the input voltage is negative, the current is
internally limited by a 15k
resistor as shown in
Figure 2. High and low input thresholds can be
obtained by adding and subtracting half of the
hysteresisto the voltage of pin Ref (see Figure 3).
built-in
hysteresis
Figure 2:
Equivalentinput circuit
L6374
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