Texas Instruments Incorporated
APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR WIDE-RANGE CURRENT SENSING

Abstract:

A sectioned field effect transistor ("FET") for implementing a rapidly changing sense range ratio dynamically in response to changing load and main supply conditions. The sectioned FET may have multiple main FET sections, and multiple sense FET sections. These sections can be dynamically connected and disconnected from the sectioned FET. The sections may also be connected by a common gate. There may also be common drain or source connections for the main FET sections, and also common drain or source connections for the sense FET sections. The sectioned FET allows for the sense range to be extended by a multiple of k+1, where k is the size ratio or factor of the additional sense FET sections. This allows the current sense range ratio to be extended to (m+n)/n*(k+1).