During a normal power up the hot swap controller behaves as follows: 1) The ON pin is enabled. This can be hard wired to the supply or controlled using a digital signal. 2) This triggers the TIMER to cycle an initial power-up delay cycle. 3) Once this is completed, the Gate will begin to come up. As the Gate reaches the threshold of the MOSFET, current will begin to flow. 4) Due to the output capacitance, the current will temporarily hit the limit and the gate will level off to maintain a constant current. Note the TIMER begins its cycle also. 5) As this is just inrush current, the capacitor will charge up and eventually stop its current demand. Here the load current drops off to normal and falls below the limit. The Timer also stops its cycle before it reaches its upper limit and the Gate increases once again to achieve normal operating mode.