When driving a load, especially one that can have a variety of load types connected or enabled downstream, having real-time diagnostic feedback about the load current magnitude is useful. External current sensing implementations used in discrete systems are costly in terms of price, current consumption, and board area. TI's high-side switches integrate this functionality by including a dedicated current sense output, which scales down the load current, which can be read as an analog voltage across an external resistor. For more information about TI's high-side switches and high-accuracy current sense, refer to the High Accuracy Current Sense of Smart High Side Switches application note.

Figure 2-1 High Side Switch Current Sense Architecture

TI's smart eFuses take this feature one step further, utilizing the integrated ADCs to read provide current diagnostic information by using Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), along with input and output voltages and FET junction temperature. This additional integration eliminates the need for an external microcontroller (MCU) or discrete ADC and allows for high-accuracy, low power consumption I2T protection, greatly reducing system cost and complexity.