Fault monitoring is essential because it provides feedback to the system’s microprocessor or microcontroller whenever an overcurrent or other fault condition occurs. Current limit switches will typically assert reset under the following conditions: an overcurrent condition, reverse current is detected, the die temperature exceeds a specified level such as 150ºC, or the current limit switch itself is disabled. The fault-blanking timeout refers to the period of time during turn on when all faults are ignored. This is necessary since there may be high current flowing through the switch at turn-on to charge capacitors on the output which is to be expected. Some current limit switch parts allow the user to adjust this fault blanking time.