
MIC5010
Micrel
5-96
April 1998
point is somewhat reduced when the output is at ground as
the voltage drop across R1 is zero. No clamping is required
for inductive loads.
Typical Applications
Start-up into a Dead Short
. If the MIC5010 attempts to turn
on a MOSFET when the load is shorted, a very high current
flows. The over-current shutdown will protect the MOSFET,
but only after a time delay of 5 to 10
μ
s. The MOSFET must
be capable of handling the overload; consult the device's
SOA curve. If a short circuit causes the MOSFET to exceed
its 10
μ
s SOA, a small inductance in series with the source
can help limit di/dt to control the peak current during the 5
to 10
μ
s delay.
When testing short-circuit behavior, use a current probe
rated for both the peak current and the high di/dt.
The over-current shutdown delay varies with comparator
overdrive, owing to noise filtering in the comparator. A delay
of up to 100
μ
s can be observed at the threshold of shut-
down. A 20% overdrive reduces the delay to near minimum.
Incandescent Lamps
. The cold filament of an incandes-
cent lamp exhibits less than one-tenth as much resistance
as when the filament is hot. The initial turn-on current of a
#6014 lamp is about 70A, tapering to 4.4A after a few
hundred milliseconds. It is unwise to set the over-current trip
point to 70A to accommodate such a load. A “resistive” short
that draws less than 70A could destroy the MOSFET by
allowing sustained, excessive dissipation. If the over-cur-
rent trip point is set to less than 70A, the MIC5010 will not
start a cold filament. The solution is to start the lamp with a
high trip point, but reduce this to a reasonable value after the
lamp is hot.
The MIC5010 over-current shutdown circuit is designed to
handle this situation by varying the trip point with time (see
Figure 5). R
TH1
functions in the conventional manner,
providing a current limit of approximately twice that required
by the lamp. R
TH2
acts to increase the current limit at turn-
on to approximately 10 times the steady-state lamp current.
The high initial trip point decays away according to a 20ms
time constant contributed by C
TH
. R
TH2
could be eliminated
with C
TH
working against the internal 1k
resistor, but this
results in a very high over-current threshold. As a rule of
thumb design the over-current circuitry in the conventional
manner, then add the R
TH2
/C
TH
network to allow for lamp
start-up. Let R
TH2
= (R
TH1
÷
10) – 1k
, and choose a
capacitor that provides the desired time constant working
against R
TH2
and the internal 1k
resistor.
When the MIC5010 is turned off, the threshold pin (4)
appears as an open circuit, and C
TH
is discharged through
R
TH1
and R
TH2
. This is much slower than the turn-on time
Applications Information
(Continued)
Inhibit
Input
Thresh
Sense
Source
Gnd
Fault
V+
C1
Com
C2
Gate
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
MIC5010
IRCZ44
(S=2590,
R=11m
)
10μF
22
20k
Figure 4. Low-Side Driver with
Current-Sensing MOSFET
LOAD
Control Input
=15V
V+
+
NC
NC
R
TH
V
LOAD
SOURCE
KELVIN
SENSE
S
R
SR
R I
–
R =
L
V
TRIP
V
TRIP
R =
–1000
2200
V
TRIP
For this example:
=20A (trip current)
I
L
=100mV
V
TRIP
Inhibit
Input
Thresh
Sense
Source
Gnd
Fault
V+
C1
Com
C2
Gate
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
MIC5010
12V
IRCZ44
10μF
43
3.9k
Figure 5. Time-Variable
Trip Threshold
Control Input
+
NC
NC
22k
R
TH1
C
TH
22μF
1k
#6014
R
TH2