Hot-Swap Protection IC Requires No External Sense Resistor

Allegro Microsystems’ ACS760 employs the company’s Hall-effect current-sensing technology to implement three levels of fault protection.

The ACS760 hot-swap protection IC from Allegro Microsystems Inc. combines the company’s Hall-effect current-sensing technology with hot-swap control circuitry to create a highly efficient integrated controller for 12-V hot-swap applications. The device does not require an external sense resistor, greatly reducing I^2R losses in the power path. Three levels of fault protection include: 240-VA power fault protection with user-programmable delay; user-programmable over-current fault threshold with programmable delay; and short-circuit protection, which disables the gate in less then 2 µs.

The ACS760 incorporates an external high-side FET gate drive, and produces an analog output voltage (factory trimmed for gain and offset), that is proportional to the applied current. The user-controlled soft-start/hot-swap function is accessed via the logic “enable” input pin. The IC is designed for single-supply operation from 10.8 V to 13.2 V and has 1.5 m? internal conductor resistance. It is protected against electrostatic discharge at up to 2 kV for all pins. The ACS760 comes in 24-lead QSOP package (suffix LF), which is lead-free and RoHS-compliant. Operating temperature range is -40ºC to 85ºC.