The Design Of A Low Voltage Hot-Swap Controller

Demands for significant developments of electron technology have got more and more applications in hot swap technology, and its market develops very fast, which produces large demands of Hot-swap Controller ICs. However, almost all of the products are held by foreign IC companies. It is of importance for us to develop Hot-swap Controller ICs with our own Intellectual Property.In this paper, the design of a low voltage Hot-swap Controller circuit is presented. The paper give a detailed account of low voltage hot swap controller based on analysis of the development of the hot swap technique. The emphases of this technology is making functions of the Hot-swap Controller allows a board to be safely inserted and removed form a live backplane. Using an external N-channel pass transistor, the board supply voltage can be ramped up at a programmable rate. Charge pump circuits, the accurate timer, under voltage lockout circuits, changing terminated circuit and recharging circuit are designed to make sure a safe hot swap process. As it is a typical analog and mixed signal IC, the special process, XFAB's high voltage BiCMOS process, was introduced that was especially suitable for of the chips working under high voltage and ;large current condition. The IC was accomplished based on this process and many influences were considered in the floor plan and layout design. Its layout is signed off to the foundry to be taped-out and tested.The simulation and tested results showed that the performance of the circuit met the sections successfully. It has high stability, reliability and feasibility and can work properly and efficiently in a wide rage of ambient temperature and supply voltage variation. The behavior of the IC is excellent and can be ranked beside the best of their kind in foreign country.