US Patent 7126801 Polarity protection implemented with a MOSFET

A polarity protection circuit contains a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (FET) that pets its control voltage via an electrical connection from supply voltage lines and a transistor that pets its control voltage via another connection from the supply voltage lines. When a supply voltage has a wrong polarity the FET is in a non-conducting state. If in the supply voltage lines during normal operation there occurs a short circuit that tends to chance a direction of the current, the transistor rapidly discharges a gate charge of the FET, and the current flow in the wrong direction is prevented.