Introduction -- State of the Art: Current Sensing, Biasing Schemes and Voltage Reference -- Current Sensing Principles with Biasing Scheme -- High Side Current Regulation and Energy Limitation -- Low Side Current Regulation and Energy Limitation -- Biasing Schemes and Diagnostic Circuit -- Conclusions and Future Work -- Appendices.

This book provides a detailed description of fault tolerant design techniques for smart power drivers and their application in the design of automotive airbag ICs to ensure correct deployment. The book begins with an introduction to the nature of electrical loads in the car, then moves on to describe various current sensing circuits, featuring thermal simulations. It shows how simple design techniques can be applied to ensure appropriate functionality of the IC under any power up condition. It concludes by introducing diagnostic circuits and measurement results. This book is a useful reference for automotive IC designers and provides specifications and design guidelines not found in the current literature. Provides a comprehensive reference for airbag squib drive IC designers Demonstrates how simple design techniques can be applied to ensure appropriate functionality Details high power IC design for automotive airbags.