Slew-rate Boosted Amplifier Integrated in a Digital Input Driver for Automotive Actuator Control Units

摘要

The paper presents a slew-rate boosted analog amplifier embedded in a digital input driver for automotive actuator control unit (ACU). The whole ACU integrated circuit has been realized in a 0.18 μm CMOS technology with embedded Flash memory. The slew-rate boosted amplifier allows to drive high capacitive loads of power FETs, with rise and fall time of few μs. The IC has been designed to face harsh automotive requirements such as extended ambient temperature range, from −40 to 160 °C, ESD of ±4 kV as proved by experimental measurements on the fabricated IC.