Electronic circuit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9802560-B2
Application number	US-201314442044-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2013
Priority date	Nov 13, 2012
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

An electronic circuit includes a regulator circuit including at least one regulator configured to supply a predetermined voltage by receiving a power supply from a main power source circuit, a functional circuit configured to operate on the voltage supplied from the regulator and perform a predetermined function, and a monitor circuit connected to at least one of the regulators and configured to monitor operation mode information inputted to the regulator. When detecting that the operation mode information contains sleep transition information to make a transition from a normal mode as a normal operation state to a sleep mode as an operation state where power consumption is smaller than that in the normal mode, the monitor circuit outputs a voltage output maintaining signal to the regulator connected to the monitor circuit to supply the voltage capable of causing the functional circuit to operate in the normal mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic circuit comprising:
a regulator circuit including a plurality of regulators configured to supply a predetermined voltage by receiving a power supply from a main power source circuit;
a plurality of functional circuits configured to operate on the voltage supplied from the regulators and perform predetermined functions, and
a monitor circuit connected to at least one of the regulators and configured to monitor operation mode information inputted to the at least one of the regulators, wherein
when detecting that the operation mode information contains sleep transition information to make a transition from a normal mode as a normal operation state to a sleep mode as an operation state where power consumption is smaller than that in the normal mode, the monitor circuit outputs a voltage output maintaining signal to the at least one of the regulators connected to the monitor circuit to supply the voltage capable of causing at least one of the functional circuits, which is connected with the at least one of the regulators, to operate in the normal mode,
at least one of the functional circuits receives a signal, performs a predetermined calculation based on the signal, and outputs a control signal based on a result of the calculation to a target to be controlled by the functional circuits, and
at least one of the functional circuits is configured as a steering lock processing circuit which receives a vehicle state signal indicative of a state of a vehicle and outputs the control signal based on the vehicle state signal to a steering lock device configured to lock a steering of the vehicle.

2. The electronic circuit according to claim 1 , wherein
the operation mode information is inputted to the regulator circuit from a circuit separate from the electronic circuit.

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Umegaki Nobuo
• Tsuruta Susumu

Classifications

• B60R16/03 Primary

  for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems {or for (circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00)} · CPC title

• B60R25/02142 Primary

  comprising externally controlled safety devices for preventing locking during vehicle running condition · CPC title

• B60R25/0215

  using electric means, e.g. electric motors or solenoids · CPC title

• B60R25/40

  Features of the power supply for the anti-theft system, e.g. anti-theft batteries, back-up power supply or means to save battery power · CPC title

• Y02T10/92

  Energy efficient charging or discharging systems for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors specially adapted for vehicles · CPC title