A driving circuit of a switch includes first and second transistors connected in series to each other and to relative intrinsic diodes in antiseries and driven by a driving device that includes at least one first and one second output terminal connected to the switch to supply it with a first control signal for driving the switch in a first working state and a second control signal for driving the switch in a second working state. At least one latch circuit coupled between respective common gate...

Connected to a power element having a first electrode, a second electrode, and a control electrode, a power element protection circuit detects a voltage between the first and second electrodes of the power element and the current flowing through the power element, then logarithmically converts a current proportional to the detected voltage and a current proportional to the detected current individually, then adds the results together, then subtracts a predetermined value from the sum, then antil...

The present invention provides an electrically conductive element for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell having low electrical contact resistance and high corrosion resistance. The conductive element comprises a corrosion susceptible metal substrate with a surface, which is preferably treated to activate the surface (i.e., to remove a passivation layer of oxides from the surface) with an acidic treatment solution. The treated surface is then overlaid with an electrically conductive, corrosion-...

A switching circuit includes a semiconductor switching element having a control electrode and a source-drain current path, the source-drain current path being connected between a voltage source and a load circuit, a parallel circuit formed by first and second transistors having respective collector-emitter paths connected between the control electrode of the semiconductor switching element and a reference potential point, a first resistor connected to the second transistor in series, a different...

A method drives a transistor half-bridge. The method includes measuring a delay time between an edge of an input signal and an corresponding edge of a phase signal, and saving the delay time as a saved delay time value. The phase signal is the output of the transistor half-bridge. In the method, the following steps are repeated until the saved delay time value differs from the delay time by more than a given threshold: decrementing the delay-value of a programmable delay circuit and the saved de...

A circuit arrangement with a gate driver circuit for a power transistor is disclosed which is suitable for low voltage applications, permitting a rail-to-rail output without a loss in speed/bandwidth, which is very simple, low cost, low current and area efficient. The gate driver circuit comprises a drain follower with a MOS driver transistor having the gate connected to an interconnection node of a capacitive divider. A first capacitor of the capacitive divider is connected between the drain an...

Highly sensitive sensor platforms for the detection of specific reagents, such as chromate, gasoline and biological species, using microcantilevers and other microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) whose surfaces have been modified with photochemically attached organic monolayers, such as self-assembled monolayers (SAM), or gold-thiol surface linkage are taught. The microcantilever sensors use photochemical hydrosilylation to modify silicon surfaces and gold-thiol chemistry to modify metallic surf...

A single signal trace can be multiplexed between a circuit that provides a reference voltage and another circuit that is not operational while the reference voltage is needed. Fewer signal connections will be needed due to the multiplexing. As one possible example, a clock signal that is used at initial power up of an electrical circuit can later be used as a reference voltage. In one specific example, a signal line is connected from one electronic device to a second electronic device. The signa...

A chromate/silicate surface treatment for providing an aluminum heat exchanger with a corrosive-resistent hydrophilic coating. The subject process includes sequentially immersing an aluminum heat exchanger in a series of chemical solutions. The chemical solutions include a cleaning solution, followed by a rinse solution, chromate solution, additional rinse solution, and a silicate solution. The chemical concentrations of the cleaning solution, chromate solution and silicate solution are precisel...

A supply switch circuit is provided for implementing a switchable on-chip high voltage supply. A stack of transistors is coupled between an on-chip high voltage supply and a circuit node. A control signal is coupled to the stack of transistors for selectively switching the high voltage supply to the circuit node. The control signal is coupled to a voltage divider included with the stack of transistors to limit a maximum node voltage within the stack of transistors.