Diodes Incorporated | ZXCT1009FTA

Zetex is a leading provider of high performance, analog semiconductor products for signal processing and power management. The company designs and manufactures a broad range of standard and application focused linear integrated circuits and discrete semiconductor products using a wide variety of wafer processing technologies.

Sensing current used to be tricky buiness. Not anymore, current monitors offer a simple and accurate solution for measuring high side currents. Current monitors provide accurate current measurement even if the load is short circuited. The current output topology and very low offset voltage increases its versatility and allows it to be optimized for low in-line voltage drop. Current monitors are able to operate on both high and low sides of the load, the monitor will support dynamic output current limitations circuits in a broad range of applications, from power supply bricks to motor control circuits. By measuring currents in the high side or low side the ground reference point is left undisturbed.

Many current monitors come in two output formats:

• A versatile current output
• A voltage output offering greater simplicity and accuracy

The ZXCT1009 is a high side current sense monitor. Using this device eliminates the need to disrupt the ground plane when sensing a load current. It takes a high side voltage developed across a current shunt resistor and translates it into a proportional output current. A user defined output resistor scales the output current into a ground-referenced voltage. The wide input voltage range of 20V down to as low as 2.5V make it suitable for a range of applications. A minimum operating current of just 4µA, combined with its SOT23 package make it a unique solution for portable battery equipment.