Granted Patent B2

US 8,237,424 · App. 12/161,521 · Granted Aug 7, 2012

Abstract

Claims (25)

1. A system comprising:

a voltage regulator operably coupled to an external component;

a voltage regulator reset circuit; and

at least one functional element supplied with a voltage by the voltage regulator;

wherein the voltage regulator reset circuit is arranged to repetitively reset the voltage regulator upon disconnection of the external component, wherein the external component is a capacitor.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the external capacitor is a filtering capacitor.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a pulse generator operably coupled to the voltage regulator and arranged to provide repetitive pulses to the voltage regulator to repetitively switch off the voltage regulator.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the repetitive pulses are triggered by a voltage drop occurring at an output of the voltage regulator.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the repetitive pulses are triggered when the voltage drop at an output of the voltage regulator drops below a threshold.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the reset circuit is operably coupled to the pulse generator and the voltage drop generates a trigger reset signal in the reset circuit to be applied to the pulse generator.

7. The system of claim 2 , further comprising a pulse generator operably coupled to the voltage regulator and arranged to provide repetitive pulses to the voltage regulator to repetitively switch off the voltage regulator.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is integrated onto an analog or mixed analog/digital integrated circuit.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the reset circuit is operably coupled to the pulse generator and the voltage drop generates a trigger reset signal in the reset circuit to be applied to the pulse generator.

10. A method for protecting a system comprising a voltage regulator coupled to a reset circuit, an external component and at least one functional element, the method comprising the steps of:

supplying a voltage by the voltage regulator to the functional element;

determining whether the external component is connected to the voltage regulator, wherein the external component is a capacitor; and

repetitively resetting the voltage regulator by the reset circuit in response to disconnection of the external component from the voltage regulator.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the step of determining comprises detecting a voltage drop at a voltage regulator output.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of repetitively resetting the voltage regulator occurs in response to detecting a voltage drop below a threshold at a voltage regulator output.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the step of repetitively resetting the voltage regulator comprises resetting the voltage regulator in a system lock-up operation.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the step of repetitively resetting the voltage regulator comprises applying a voltage regulator reset signal to the voltage regulator thereby intermittently switching the voltage regulator ‘OFF’.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein applying a voltage regulator reset signal comprises initiating a periodic voltage regulator reset signal thereby periodically switching the voltage regulator ‘OFF’.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of repetitively resetting the voltage regulator comprises resetting the voltage regulator in a system lock-up operation.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of repetitively resetting the voltage regulator comprises applying a voltage regulator reset signal to the voltage regulator thereby intermittently switching the voltage regulator ‘OFF’.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the step of repetitively resetting the voltage regulator comprises applying a voltage regulator reset signal to the voltage regulator thereby intermittently switching the voltage regulator ‘OFF’.

Assignments (26)