Nowadays, almost every new car is equipped with Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), and the automotive industry is striving to achieve higher levels of automation. This type of safety critical system not only requires a reliable and intelligent board network architecture, but also requires more comfortable functions, resulting in an increasing number of loads. The E/E architecture therefore requires reliable and intelligent solutions to protect sensitive loads from current overload and ensure rapid isolation of distribution systems from faults.

In order to meet these needs, Infineon Technology Co., Ltd. (FSE code: IFX/OTCQX code: IFNNY) has launched a new automotive grade intelligent high edge switch product combination PROFET ™ Load Guard 12V。 The combination of adjustable overcurrent limit and capacitive load switch (CLS) mode can flexibly respond to various requirements of modern secondary distribution and provide a protection mechanism for safety critical ADAS integration.
The new PROFET Load Guard 12V dual channel and single channel devices provide a wide current limiting range of 0.3 A to 8.7 A, depending on the conduction resistance (RDS (ON)). This function can set the protection level according to system requirements without the involvement of a microcontroller. Not only does it avoid peak current that endangers the load, but it also provides fast fault isolation for the distribution side in the event of overload caused by load faults such as sensor fusion boxes. High capacity loads such as ADAS and display modules can also be quickly started using the capacitive load switch (CLS) mode of the device.

CLS mode allows a few millifarers of capacitors to be charged in the safe working area (SOA) of the intelligent high side switch, thus improving the robustness of the entire system. In addition, PRO SIL ™ ISO26262 ready devices simplify their use in functional safety related applications by providing Safety Application Note. In addition, industry-leading low current detection accuracy enables precise module diagnosis and monitoring.

The PROFET Load Guard 12V series has a wide operating voltage range of 3V (2.7V at startup) to 28V, coupled with adjustable overcurrent limit and CLS mode, providing extremely high load flexibility. If the load or system requirements change, such as variable handling, the simulated overcurrent limit threshold can be easily adapted to new conditions by simply changing the resistance connected to the OCT pin. In addition to flexibility, this feature also provides hardware based line protection for time independent loads. The CLS mode further expands the load potential and can respond to the increasing number of capacitive loads, such as modules.

The rated current of this series is 2A to 3A, including two 90 m Ω and two 50 m Ω devices, which can be used as single channel and dual channel automotive intelligent high side switches. The validated PG-TS-DSO-14 package is highly compatible with other SMART7 devices such as PROFET+2 12V. The integrated CLS mode can easily meet loads with high capacitance shares, allowing large capacitors to quickly charge within the safe working area (SOA) of PROFET Load Guard 12V. In the low current range, the industry-leading high current detection accuracy (kILIS) tolerance enables high-precision current detection.

To support the design process of PROFET Load Guard 12V devices, this series of products is integrated into the PROFET Guard tool provided by the Infineon developer community. This tool supports evaluating the system protection capability of PROFET Load Guard 12V devices under given line and load conditions. It can also calculate the correct resistance value for adjustable overcurrent limitation.

Supply situation

The PROFET Load Guard 12V series has now been put into production. For more information and simulation models, please visit http://www.infineon.com/profetloadguard 。