PROFET™ Wire Guard 12V | Automotive Smart High-Side Switch

Decentralized, dependable automotive power distribution demands reliable solutions for wire harness protection, replacing melting fuses and reducing weight and complexity of wiring harnesses. PROFET™ Wire Guard integrates hardware-based I²t wire protection and adjustable overcurrent detection for fast failure isolation. With the integrated I²t wire protection, the PROFET™ Wire Guard precisely calculates the stress of the wire, considering the measured current. The wire protection status feedback to the microcontroller allows accurate surveillance of the system behavior. Each device enables to optimize wire protection and load profile matching with six selectable I²t protection curves per device, matching to the corresponding RDS(ON). Furthermore, the feature reduces the time to market with specified and tested functionality on device level. Additional features include a sequential diagnosis, automatic low-power IDLE mode, capacitive load switching mode, and adjustable overcurrent protection for fast failure isolation towards dependable power supplies. PROFET™ Wire Guard is Infineon’s answer to eFuse requirements in modern power distribution of E/E architectures.

The PROFET™ Wire Guard portfolio is characterized by standalone hardware-based wire protection via integrated I²t calculation functions, selectable according to the wire profile and system requirements. This precise and reliable eFuse functionality by hardware enables fuse replacement in modern power distribution and therefore wire harness optimization in terms of cost and weight plus PCB space savings. With the automatic IDLE mode, the devices enable full load control and self-protection functionality in key-off mode, with minimized power consumption. In combination with the adjustable overcurrent threshold, the PROFET™ Wire Guard accurately provides fast failure isolation towards the system power supply for safety-relevant applications.  The sequential diagnosis provides detailed status feedback via one single pin. With the capacitive load switching mode, a broad range of capacitive loads can be charged in the safe operating area. Developed ISO26262-compliant, the PROFET™ Wire Guard family provides a safety manual for the use in functional safety applications. Software tools in the Infineon Developer Center support the design-in process.

With Infineon’s PROFET™ Wire Guard 12V, designers are well prepared for todays and upcoming challenges of the automotive electronic/electrical (E/E) architectures. Those architectures demand components that meet the requirements for PRO-SIL™ ISO 26262-compliant and PRO-SIL™ ISO 26262-ready classifications used in fail-safe and in fail-operational power distribution systems.
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Infineon offers a range of design-in materials, which include application notes, evaluation boards, PCB design data, simulation models and also online simulation tools. This material can be found on each product page in chapter "Design Support". In addition, Infineon offers a dedicated tool suite for Smart Power Switches and Gate Driver IC's for automotive power distribution.
The Infineon Smart Power Switches & Gate Driver Tool Suite supports system architects and hardware designers from the starting point of an idea to the realization. This suite allows the user to select the right smart power switch or gate driver IC for a specific load using one of the “Finder & Selection” tools. Together with the different “Simulation & Modeling” tools, various application scenarios can be simulated for the respective products. The results can be documented in the report tool and verified with the “Configuration” tools, including the corresponding evaluation boards.
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