Dedicated protective functions of automotive ICs and design examples

Semiconductors in automotive applications require protection against broad variety of stresses imposed on them at the device, board and system level. The overall reliability of electronic systems comprising of sensor ICs, microcontrollers and smart power ICs can be achieved only when innovative protection concepts are used in each component. Several examples of protective functions such as improved power supply rejection in sensor circuits, fail-safe PLL-based clock generator for microcontrollers and di/dt-limited DMOS drive circuit to ensure electromagnetic compatibility of smart power devices are presented in this paper.<
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