Abstract: An apparatus for sensing current of a vehicle battery employs an extended counting analogue-to-digital conversion process to a chopped and amplified voltage appearing across a low ohmic shunt resistor placed between the negative pole of the vehicle's battery and the chassis ground of the vehicle. Gain adjustment control of a programmable gain amplifier by matching the gain to the dynamic range of the ADC permits a high dynamic signal sensing.

Abstract: A current sense circuit for a PWM driver comprises: a PWM control circuit comprising: a first switching device arranged to receive a PWM signal from the PWM driver whose current is to be sensed; and a second switching device whose supply current is arranged to track the sensed current of the PWM driver. An ADC is operably coupled to the first and second switching device. The ADC comprises: a DAC arranged to provide a current sense to the second switching device that tracks the current passing through the PWM driver; a first comparator arranged to receive and compare an output current from the DAC and an output current from the first switching device; and a first successive approximation register arranged to receive an output from the comparator and provide: a first output to the ADC; and a second output that provides a representation of the sensed current.