SWITCHING POWER STAGE CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENT WITH CYCLE-BY-CYCLE PROTECTION AGAINST OVER-CURRENTS AND CORRESPONDING SWITCHING METHOD

A switching power stage comprisingat least a half bridge (11) comprising a respective high side switch (HSD) and low side switch (LSD) driven (12) by a PWM signal (PWMin), anda cycle-by-cycle protection against over-currents circuit (15)receiving said driving PWM signal (PWMin) andconfigured to output a cycle-by-cycle protected driving signal (OutCBC) to drive said high side switch (HSD) and low side switch (LSD),said cycle-by-cycle protection against over-currents circuit (15) receiving signals indicative of an over-currents (OcHsd, OcLsd) detected at said high side switch (HSD) and low side switch (LSD),said cycle-by-cycle protection against over-currents circuit (15) being configured to output said cycle-by-cycle protected driving signal (OutCBC) as inverted driving PWM signal (PWMin) if, during the time interval in which one of the high side switch (HSD) or low side switch (LSD) is on, the signals indicative of an over-current (OcHsd, OcLsd) indicate that the current flowing in such switch crosses a give threshold (II), turning off the one of the high side switch or low side switch which is on, else the driving PWM signal (PWMin) is outputted not inverted,wherein said power stage (10) further comprises an anomaly detection circuit (25) which receives at least the signals indicative of an over-current (OcHsd, OcLsd) and it is configured to switch off the high side and low side switches if an anomaly is detected in the pattern of over-current events (P, P1) in the the signals indicative of an over-current (OcHsd, OcLsd).