Design of a hiccup mode over-current protection circuit for DC–DC switching converters

In the paper an improvement hiccup mode over-current protection circuit is proposed and successfully applied in a typical current-mode DC–DC switching converter. It greatly reduces the circuit power consumption in prolonged overload conditions and can provide smooth self-recovery once the overload condition is removed. By reducing the switching frequency and over-current threshold value, it further improves the effect of over-current protection. The power consumption and implementation area are minimized by digital control. By simulation and verification with HSPICE, the output average current is only 16.8% of the conventional over-current mode in continuous over-current conditions. The presented circuits can automatically recover with the maximum load (5 A) when the overload is removed.