Abstract: A circuit and method which eliminates the voltage spike generated by inductive kick, and generates a signal which is active while a relay is being released and for a given period thereafter. This signal can be used to power down circuits supplying signals to relay contacts, thereby allowing the relay to release without current or voltage potentials at its contact, e.g. dry switching. The generated signal may also be used to disable sensors which might give false indications while the relay contacts are switching. In telephone line circuits, the generated signal can be used to disable the telephone hook switch detector or to power down the battery feed circuit feeding the subscriber line. The relay coil energy generates a signal which is active while the relay is being released. The invention uses a minimum number of components and the circuit is adjustable as to how long the generated signal remains active after the relay is released.

Abstract: The present invention uses the input resistances of transconductance amplifiers in a SLIC to isolate battery ground overshoots from the rest of the SLIC circuitry. This is accomplished by allowing the voltages within each driving operational amplifier to rise with any overshoot, and is achieved by powering each operational amplifier with battery ground voltage, which overshoots, instead of with low voltage ground (LVG), which remains at ground. When a lightning surge hits, an overshoot at the SLIC output will occur. However, since the supply voltage of the driving operational amplifiers rises with the overshoot, the voltage stress to the SLIC circuit components is greatly reduced. The remaining SLIC circuitry stays at a low potential and is isolated from the overshoot. In accordance with the present invention, ground overshoot voltages are isolated across a few high ohmic valued resistors instead of appearing across active circuit components.