Control Circuit for Linearly Charging Power Capacitors

A circuit for effectively controlling the process of pre-charging a power capacitor, comprising an integrator circuit consisting of an operational amplifier implementing a voltage dependent current source, the power capacitor is being connected between the output of the integrator and ground; a high side driver connected to the positive input of the integrator via a serial current limiting resistor, for generating control signals provided to the dependent current source, the negative terminal of the driver being connected to the negative input of the integrator; a control capacitor connected between the positive input of the operational amplifier and ground. Upon activating the driver by an activation pulse, the power capacitor is being charged in a constant current determined by the current limiting resistor, until reaching a desired voltage, while the voltage across the power capacitor follows the voltage across the control capacitor.