Having Protection Means (e.g., Switching Circuit Protection, Stall Protection, Failure To Start, "wrong" Direction, Etc.) Patents (Class 318/400.21)
  • Patent number: 11955791
    Abstract: A short-circuit detector includes: a first Rogowski coil configured to generate a first detection signal in accordance with a current that flows through a first arm due to a short circuit in a load; a second Rogowski coil configured to generate a second detection signal in accordance with a current that flows through the first arm due to a short circuit in the first arm or a second arm; a load short-circuit detection circuit configured to detect the short circuit in the load, based on the first detection signal; an arm short-circuit detection circuit configured to detect the short circuit in the first arm or the second arm, based on the second detection signal; and a short-circuit detection circuit configured to detect a short-circuit, based on: an output signal output from the load short-circuit detection circuit; and an output signal output from the arm short-circuit detection circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: FUJI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Natsuko Takeuchi, Kunio Matsubara, Hiromu Takubo
  • Patent number: 11789061
    Abstract: An integrated circuit for a semiconductor device that includes a first terminal for receiving a power supply voltage, a second terminal to which a load is to be coupled, and first and second metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors each having a drain electrode and a source electrode, the source electrodes being respectively coupled to the first and second terminals. The integrated circuit includes a first line coupled to the drain electrode of the first MOS transistor and the drain electrode of the second MOS transistor, a second line to which a first voltage lower than the power supply voltage is applied, a first device configured to couple the first line and the second line, to prevent the first line from being brought into a floating state, and a detection circuit configured to detect a first abnormality in at least the first MOS transistor based on a voltage level of the first line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: FUJI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Isao Saito
  • Patent number: 11788899
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for detecting current imbalance between two or more electrical energy distribution elements of an electrical energy distribution network are disclosed. Each of a plurality of temperature sensors are implemented by a temperature sensing section of an optical fiber arranged to produce, in response to an optical input signal, an optical output signal indicative of the temperature of the temperature sensing section. First and second temperature sensors of the plurality are in thermal contact with first and second electrical energy distribution elements, respectively, to determine first and second temperature characteristics thereof based on the respective output signals. A current imbalance between the first and second elements is detected based on a comparison of the first temperature characteristic with the second temperature characteristic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: AIRBUS (SAS)
    Inventors: Thomas Fulcher, Boris Schwerdt
  • Patent number: 11784639
    Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a first terminal for a battery, a second terminal for an inverter circuit, and a transistor. The semiconductor device is configured to control a voltage applied to a control terminal of the transistor to allow supply of a current from the first terminal to the second terminal and allow supply of a current from the second terminal to the first terminal. A withstand voltage between the first terminal and the second terminal is greater than or equal to a voltage between the battery and the inverter circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: ROHM CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Mineo Miura, Masashi Hayashiguchi, Jun Terada
  • Patent number: 11740274
    Abstract: Techniques for phase identification using feature-based clustering approaches are disclosed. Embodiments employ linear and nonlinear dimensionality reduction techniques to extract feature vectors from raw time series. In an embodiment, a constrained clustering algorithm separates smart meters into phase connectivity groups. Another embodiment clusters smart meter data, where voltage measurements are collected from smart meters and a SCADA system. Then, customer voltage time series are normalized and linear or nonlinear dimensionality reduction is applied to the normalized time series to extract key features. Next, constraints in the clustering process are defined by inspecting network connectivity data. Then, a constrained clustering method is applied to partition customers into clusters. Lastly, each clusters phase is identified by solving a minimization problem.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
    Inventor: Nanpeng Yu
  • Patent number: 11680977
    Abstract: Systems and methods for identifying a fault condition in an Ungrounded Electrical Distribution (UED) system, the system receives measurements with instantaneous values and effective values associated when a fault event is identified, measured transient waveforms and a fault type. A processor applies an empirical mode decomposition to the measured transient waveforms to extract a dominant vibration mode and an associated derived waveform corresponding to the dominant vibration mode. A Hilbert transform is applied to the associated derived waveform to obtain a set of feature attributes. Subsets are computed from the set, at a pre-fault time, at a fault inception time, and at a post-fault time, and inputted into the fault type trained neural network model. An output of the model are locational parameters used to determine a fault section, a fault line segment and a fault location point with a topology connectivity analysis of the UED system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventor: Hongbo Sun
  • Patent number: 11646682
    Abstract: Electric machine drive systems, and related electric machine embodiments, include technologies for providing redundancy of shaft information of one or more electric machines between converter controllers of the corresponding system. The converter controllers are configured to control operation of power converters, which control one or more electric machines. The disclosed technologies include establishing one or more communication buses between the converter controllers to share the shaft information, which may be based on analog signals from a single, common resolver and/or from different, redundant resolvers depending on the embodiment. For example, in some embodiments, converter controllers communicatively connected to the same resolver may include separate resolver-to-digital converters (RDCs) to provide redundancy of the RDCs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2023
    Assignee: Rolls-Royce Corporation
    Inventors: Firman Sasongko, Md Shafquat Ullah Khan, Rejeki Simanjorang
  • Patent number: 11626780
    Abstract: An electronic control device includes a plurality of control circuit units, a signal line, and a sneak-in suppression circuit. The plurality of control circuit units are connected to separate grounds, respectively. The signal line connects a first control circuit unit and a second control circuit unit. When a system is defined as a combination of a component and a ground corresponding to a control circuit unit, the sneak-in suppression circuit suppresses a sneak-in of electric power from the ground of one system (i.e., a subject system) to the other system connected by the signal line for preventing a cascading failure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hideki Kabune
  • Patent number: 11601077
    Abstract: Electric machine drive systems, and related electric machine embodiments, include technologies for providing redundancy of shaft information of one or more electric machines between converter controllers of the corresponding system. The converter controllers are configured to control operation of power converters, which control one or more electric machines. The disclosed technologies include establishing one or more communication buses between the converter controllers to share the shaft information, which may be based on analog signals from a single, common resolver and/or from different, redundant resolvers depending on the embodiment. For example, in some embodiments, converter controllers communicatively connected to the same resolver may include separate resolver-to-digital converters (RDCs) to provide redundancy of the RDCs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: Rolls-Royce Corporation
    Inventors: Firman Sasongko, Md Shafquat Ullah Khan, Rejeki Simanjorang
  • Patent number: 11594995
    Abstract: The invention relates to a system 1 for controlling a voltage converter comprising a plurality of high-side switches forming a high group and a plurality of low-side switches forming a low group, the control system 1 comprising: a module 10 for measuring a voltage V of the DC voltage source B, a module 11 for comparing the measured voltage V with a first safety threshold OV1, a control module 12 for controlling a first group of switches so as to close chosen from the high group or the low group, if the comparison module 11 indicates that the measured voltage V is higher than the first safety threshold OV1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: Valeo Equipements Electriques Moteur
    Inventors: Mathieu Bertrand, Yann Lecocq, Hicham Lahbil
  • Patent number: 11585071
    Abstract: A swing motion control system for an earth-moving machine may include a closed loop hydraulic circuit including a hydrostatic swing pump fluidly coupled to at least one hydraulic swing motor configured to control a swing mechanism of the earth-moving machine, a pressure control device configured to control the pressure of fluid supplied to the hydrostatic swing pump for control of the pressure output by the pump, and a controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
    Inventors: Rustin Glenn Metzger, Adam Martin Nackers, Joshua Aaron Fossum, Christopher M. Ruemelin, Corey Lee Gorman
  • Patent number: 11554633
    Abstract: A closed loop feedback control and diagnostics system for a transport climate control system is provided. The closed loop feedback control and diagnostics system includes a plurality of source current sensors configured to monitor current received from a high voltage three-phase AC power source. The closed loop feedback control and diagnostics system also includes a plurality of compressor current sensors configured to monitor current drawn by an electrically powered compressor of the transport climate control system. The closed loop feedback control and diagnostics system also includes a controller configured to receive source current signals from each of the plurality of source current sensors, configured to receive compressor current signals from each of the plurality of compressor current sensors, and configured to control operation of the transport climate control system based on the received source current signals and the received compressor current signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: THERMO KING LLC
    Inventor: Marcelo Andrade Dias
  • Patent number: 11554676
    Abstract: A motor device for a vehicle includes a stator, a rotor, a bearing, an inverter, and a controller. The stator is attached into a housing and includes a concentrated winding coil. The rotor includes a permanent magnet. The bearing supports a rotating shaft of the rotor. The inverter controls an energization state of the concentrated winding coil. If a rotational speed of the rotor is greater than a threshold, the controller outputs a control signal to the inverter to execute field weakening control, and thereby makes a potential difference between the housing and the rotating shaft lower than a withstand voltage of the bearing. The control signal controls the energization state of the concentrated winding coil. The field weakening control generates magnetic flux of the concentrated winding coil in a direction of weakening magnetic flux of the permanent magnet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masatoshi Hanaoka, Akihito Katsume, Seiya Morimoto
  • Patent number: 11518435
    Abstract: An ECU includes a plurality of motor driving circuits for driving at least one motor, a plurality of computers and a plurality of clock circuits. A first computer, which is at a synchronization signal transmission-side, transmits a synchronization signal to a second computer, which is at a synchronization signal reception-side. The first computer and the second computer execute a plurality of specific periodic processes, which are processes executed at cycle periods (for example, 200 ?s, 400 ?s) of different natural number multiples of a cycle period (for example, 200 ?s) of the synchronization signal and need be synchronized. Each timing of the plurality of specific periodic processes is determined based on one synchronization signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masaya Taki, Koichi Nakamura, Toshimitsu Sakai, Nobuyori Nakajima
  • Patent number: 11509255
    Abstract: A short circuit detection system and method that identifies a short circuit between turns of a winding of a permanent magnet machine having a three-phase winding in response to detection of imbalances between the three motor phases at an instant in time. The imbalances are identified by monitoring motor terminal voltages and currents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: HAMILTON SUNDSTRAND CORPORATION
    Inventors: Grzegorz Popek, Stephen Minshull
  • Patent number: 11500005
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for obtaining a reference phase signal that is synchronized with an alternating current (AC) phase of a multi-phase electrical power distribution system. The apparatus obtains output signals from sensors, each output signal representative of an electromagnetic emission detected by a respective sensor. The apparatus identifies, based on comparing respective phases of the output signals to the reference phase signal, a particular AC phase of the multi-phase electrical power distribution system associated with a source of the emissions. The apparatus provides an indication of the particular AC phase to a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: X Development LLC
    Inventors: Leo Francis Casey, Siyuan Xin, Peter Evans, Shuyu Wang, Raymond Daly, C. O. Lee Boyce, Jr., Joel Fraser Atwater
  • Patent number: 11502637
    Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for determining a rotor temperature of a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PSM) of an electrically driven vehicle are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: Audi AG
    Inventors: Bernhard Karl, Martin Adam, Sebastian Heber, Franz Honkomp
  • Patent number: 11472472
    Abstract: A power conversion device includes a first inverter and a control circuit that controls an on/off operations of switches in the first inverter and diagnoses disconnection failures of n-phase windings, where n is an integer of three or more. The control circuit generates a control signal to turn off all of n low-side switches and n high-side switches, supplies the control signal to the n low-side switches and the n high-side switches and measures the n-phase voltages that change depending on patterns of on failures of the switches, and executes a first failure diagnosis to diagnose the on failures of the n low-side switches and the n high-side switches based on the measured n-phase voltages by referring to a table associating the patterns of the on failures of the switches with n-phase voltage levels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: NIDEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takashi Koikegami, Yuhi Nakada, Kaori Nabeshi
  • Patent number: 11398792
    Abstract: Provided is an electric power steering device including a motor-including a first and a second three-phase windings, first and second inverter circuits configured to supply electric power to the first and second three-phase windings, respectively, a boost circuit configured to change a voltage of electric power to be supplied to each of the first and second inverter circuits, and a drive unit configured to cause, when an abnormality occurs in any one of a first system including the first three-phase winding and the first inverter circuit and a second system including the second three-phase winding and the second inverter circuit, to supply electric power at a higher voltage than a voltage before the occurrence of the abnormality to an inverter circuit included in a normal system by the boost circuit, the normal system being one of the first system and the second system, to thereby drive the inverter circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventor: Satoru Akutsu
  • Patent number: 11374527
    Abstract: A soft starter includes a plurality of live phases, wherein a semiconductor switching element and an electromechanical switch parallel-connected thereto are arranged in each phase. In the soft starter, on a load-facing side of the semiconductor switching elements and of the electromechanical switches, the plurality of phases are connected in a circuit forming a star point. The star point circuit includes at least one passive component and is configured for detecting a reduced voltage drop in a defective state of a semiconductor switching element and/or of an electromechanical switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Dirk Hertz, Johann Seitz
  • Patent number: 11342284
    Abstract: A chip is provided. The chip is provided with a circuit block. The circuit block includes a first transistor and a second transistor. The first transistor is divided into a plurality of first sub-transistors connected in parallel. The second transistor is divided into a plurality of second sub-transistors connected in parallel. The first sub-transistors and the second sub-transistors are disposed in a first row and a second row of the circuit block in a staggered manner. The first transistors disposed in the first row and the second row respectively receive a first input signal through different signal lines. The second transistors disposed in the first row and the second row respectively receive a second input signal through different signal lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Au Optronics Corporation
    Inventors: Hsiang-Chi Cheng, Shyh-Bin Kuo, Chung-Hung Chen
  • Patent number: 11305669
    Abstract: An electronic control device including a first and second arithmetic units enables supply of electric power to an inverter for driving a power motor of a vehicle for a travel of a vehicle, when a start switch of the vehicle is turned off and then turned on by a driver at a first arithmetic unit abnormal time, by using the second arithmetic unit, which determines whether a connection condition of a positive and negative electrode side system main relays is satisfied by examining a voltage of a smoothing capacitor and puts the two system main relays in a conductive state when the connection condition is determined as satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yutaka Koyama
  • Patent number: 11300594
    Abstract: An electric working machine in one aspect of the present disclosure includes a motor, a drive current path, a resistor, a first current detector, a second current detector, and a fault determiner. The drive current path supplies the drive current to the motor. The resistor is disposed on the drive current path so as to receive the drive current. The first current detector detects a first detection value based on a first electromagnetic phenomenon with respect to the resistor. The second current detector detects a second detection value based on a second electromagnetic phenomenon with respect to the resistor. The fault determiner performs a faulty state determination based on the first detection value and the second detection value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: MAKITA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hitoshi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11223195
    Abstract: A control device and method for power supply to an EPS system in a vehicle, including a reverse voltage protection circuit and a battery disconnect circuit. A DC-end capacitor is charged with a voltage by turning on switches of a reverse voltage protection circuit and a battery disconnect circuit, a change in the voltage of the DC-end capacitor is detected by turning off the switches of the reverse voltage protection circuit and the battery disconnect circuit, and then a failure in the switches of the reverse voltage protection circuit and the battery disconnect circuit is determined on the basis of information regarding changes in the voltage of the DC-end capacitor. The failure in the reverse voltage protection circuit and the battery disconnect circuit is diagnosed without a charge/discharge circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: MANDO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jong Mu Lee, Su-Min Lee, Kyu Yeong Je
  • Patent number: 11101743
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and device for operating a multi-phase electric machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventor: Jakob Mauer
  • Patent number: 11081997
    Abstract: A power conversion device includes a first inverter connected to first ends of windings of each phase of a motor, a second inverter connected to second ends of the windings of each phase, a first phase separation relay circuit to switch between connection and disconnection between the first ends of the windings of each phase and the first inverter, a second phase separation relay circuit to switch between connection and disconnection between the second ends of the windings of each phase and the second inverter, a sub-inverter circuit connectable to the first ends and the second ends of the windings of each phase, a third phase separation relay circuit to switch between connection and disconnection between the first ends of the windings of each phase and the sub-inverter circuit, and a fourth phase separation relay circuit to switch between connection and disconnection between the second ends of the windings of each phase and the sub-inverter circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: NIDEC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hiromitsu Ohashi
  • Patent number: 11063535
    Abstract: This disclosure describes a method for shorting one or more windings in a steering motor. The method determines that a signal has not been received at a circuit from a processor. The method discharges a first capacitor in the circuit in response to the circuit not receiving the signal from the processor. The method turns on a first plurality of transistors via a resistor in response to discharging the first capacitor. The method turns on a second plurality of transistors in response to turning on the first plurality of transistors. The method sends a short circuit signal from the second plurality of transistors to a steering motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Timothy Patrick Diez, Brian Rutkowski, David Rutkowski
  • Patent number: 10998842
    Abstract: A power conversion device includes a first inverter connected to first ends of windings of each phase of a motor, a second inverter connected to second ends of the windings of each phase, a phase separation relay circuit to switch between connection and disconnection between the first ends of the windings of each phase and the first inverter, a neutral point relay circuit connected to the first ends of the windings of each phase and to switch between connection and disconnection between the first ends of the windings of each phase, a first switching element to switch between connection and disconnection between the second inverter and a power supply, and a second switching element to switch between connection and disconnection between the second inverter and a ground.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: NIDEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Eiji Wada, Hiromitsu Ohashi
  • Patent number: 10992219
    Abstract: A power conversion device includes a plurality of cascaded converter cells. In each of the converter cells, each of a plurality of arms forming a bridge circuit is provided with a plurality of semiconductor switching elements in parallel. A drive controller of each of the converter cells is configured to, when none of a plurality of predetermined abnormality modes is detected, control the bridge circuit in accordance with an externally provided command. The drive controller is configured to, when at least one of the plurality of abnormality modes is detected, turn on all semiconductor switching elements provided in at least one of the plurality of arms forming the bridge circuit, to thereby establish a short circuit between first and second input/output nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tatsuya Takahashi, Shigeo Hayashi
  • Patent number: 10988165
    Abstract: A method of controlling an electric power assisted steering (EPS) system comprising one or more inverter bridges each connected to a multi-phase motor configured to provide power assist to steering of a vehicle, each inverter comprising a plurality of switching elements each associated with a phase of the motor, is provided. The method comprises, preventing current flow in said one or more affected inverters by applying a gate-source voltage to one or more of the switching elements of the affected inverter bridge(s) in response to detecting a predefined event affecting current flow in one or more of the inverter bridges. A control system for an electric power assisted steering apparatus comprising one or more inverter bridges and a control means configured to control the switching elements in accordance with the method is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: TRW Limited
    Inventors: Tamas Terdy, Charles Mahendhrarajah, Nathanael Rice, Maciej Kudanowski
  • Patent number: 10983154
    Abstract: Disclosed are a load state detection circuit and method. A microcontroller is connected to a switch unit which is connected between a detecting power supply and a load to be tested. A voltage sampling point is formed at either terminal of the load to be tested, and the voltage sampling circuit is connected between the voltage sampling point and the microcontroller. The voltage sampling circuit is configured to sample a voltage at the voltage sampling point. The microcontroller is configured to connect the load to be tested and the detecting power supply by controlling the switch unit, and determine whether a fault exists in the load to be tested according to a received voltage at the voltage sampling point sampled by the voltage sampling circuit, before connecting the load to be tested with the drive power supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: CONTEMPORARY AMPEREX TECHNOLOGY CO., LIMITED
    Inventors: Yuqun Zeng, Kai Wu, Jirong Huo, Le Chu, Yanhui Fu, Qiandeng Li
  • Patent number: 10958201
    Abstract: A method of controlling a motor includes determining a first motor controlling parameter measurement based on a signal received from a position sensor, determining a second motor controlling parameter based on one or more motor electrical parameters, and controlling operation of the motor based on at least one of the first motor controlling parameter measurement or the second motor controlling parameter measurement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: SZ DJI TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Qiu Lan, Changxing Zhou, Wanqi Liu
  • Patent number: 10886870
    Abstract: A fault communication system includes a system controller and a plurality of devices. Each one of the plurality of devices includes a single fault terminal. A fault bus consisting of only a single wire coupled to the system controller and the plurality of devices is also included. The fault bus is coupled to provide multidirectional multi-fault group communication between the plurality of devices and the system controller. The single fault terminal of each one of the plurality of devices includes is coupled to the fault bus to provide the multidirectional multi-fault group communication between the plurality of devices and the system controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: Power Integrations, Inc.
    Inventors: Stefan S. Baurle, Mingming M. Mao
  • Patent number: 10848049
    Abstract: A plurality of semiconductor devices (1) are connected in parallel with each other. A gate driver (13) supplies a gate voltage to gates of the plurality of semiconductor devices (1). A gate wire (14,16) are sequentially connected to the gates of the plurality of semiconductor devices (1) from the gate driver (13). An energizing ability of each of the semiconductor devices (1) indicates how easily collector current flows in response to the supplied gate voltage. The plurality of semiconductor devices (1) having a lower energizing ability are connected closer to the gate driver (13).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventor: Junya Sakai
  • Patent number: 10836423
    Abstract: In an electric power steering device including a controller, which is configured to carry out feedback control for a motor including independent two coil winding groups and being configured to rotate a steering mechanism of a vehicle, when one of the two groups recovers from a failure that has occurred in the one group while control is continued solely by another group due to the failure, the controller resumes cooperative control by the two groups, and when starting the cooperative control, sets target current values of the one group and the another group to values different from a final target current value based on an actual current value or a target current value of the another group at a time of the recovery, to thereby output respective control amounts for the cooperative control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Akira Furukawa, Akihiko Mori, Eiji Iwami
  • Patent number: 10826416
    Abstract: A motor device includes a motor having coils of three phases and a single-phase coil. The motor device includes a drive circuit of a first system capable of supplying a drive current to the coils of the three phases and a drive circuit of a second system capable of supplying a drive current to the single-phase coil. The drive circuit of the second system is different from the drive circuit of the first system. The drive circuit of the first system includes a three-phase inverter circuit connected to one end of each of the coils of the three phases, and the drive circuit of the second system includes a single-phase inverter circuit connected to both ends of the single-phase coil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2020
    Assignee: MINEBEA MITSUMI INC.
    Inventors: Satoshi Hatahara, Wataru Nogamida
  • Patent number: 10804834
    Abstract: In order to improve a method for selecting a frequency converter for a refrigerant compressor unit that includes a refrigerant compressor and an electric drive motor such that the frequency converter is selected in a manner for optimized use, it is proposed that a working state suitable for operation of the refrigerant compressor unit should be selected within an application field of an application graph of the refrigerant compressor, that an operating frequency for this selected working state should be selected, and that a working state operating current value that corresponds to the selected working state and the selected operating frequency should be determined from drive data, for operation of the refrigerant compressor unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: BITZER Kuehlmaschinenbau GmbH
    Inventors: John Gibson, Tobias Hieble, Julian Pfaffl, Juergen Nill, Ferdinand Breithuth
  • Patent number: 10668945
    Abstract: A motor control apparatus includes: multiple motor drive circuits that drive at least one motor; and multiple microcomputers that are operated by a microcomputer power source and include a drive signal generator that generates a motor drive signal. The microcomputers include at least one microcomputer including a stop determiner that determines that operation of an own microcomputer is about to be stopped and transmits information as a stop determination signal. A microcomputer having received the stop determination signal from at least one different microcomputer actually stops operation of an own microcomputer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masaya Taki, Toshimitsu Sakai, Koichi Nakamura, Shuji Kuramitsu
  • Patent number: 10644642
    Abstract: To provide a three phase duplexing motor for electric power steering apparatus that can manage increase in a supply current and can manage influence on motor, when increasing a supply current to the three phase windings of the normal set. An three phase duplexing motor for electric power steering apparatus sets 0 to a supply current to three phase winding of abnormality occurrence set, and increases a supply current to three phase windings of the normal set, with a preliminarily set increase upper limit current value as an upper limit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Satoru Akutsu, Yoshihito Asao
  • Patent number: 10527676
    Abstract: An abnormality diagnosing device diagnoses a driving abnormality of a single motor driven by a plurality of motor driving devices. The motor driving devices drive the motor by supplying three-phase alternating currents to a plurality of three-phase windings possessed by the motor. The abnormality diagnosing device is equipped with a rotational speed acquisition unit for acquiring a rotational speed value of the motor, a current acquisition unit for acquiring phase current values of respective phases flowing through the three-phase windings, and a determination unit for determining the presence of an abnormality, if an absolute value of the rotational speed value exceeds a predetermined value, and an absolute value of the phase current value of any one phase of the three-phase windings is less than a threshold value continuously for a predetermined time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yuuki Morita, Tadashi Okita, Kenji Takahashi
  • Patent number: 10498283
    Abstract: Provided is a motor drive device capable of adjusting a 0-axis current to a desired value. A motor drive device (inverter device 100) for an open winding type motor 200 in which a stator winding wire includes three-phase independent winding wires 210, 220, and 230 includes a plurality of single-phase inverters 160, 170, and 180 provided for each of the winding wires 210 to 230 to individually apply a voltage to a corresponding winding wire, and a controller 150 that controls each of the single-phase inverters 160 to 180. The controller 150 adjusts a 0-axis current to a predetermined value by alternately and repeatedly generating a first period in which a sum of voltages applied to the respective independent winding wires 210 to 230 is set to a value other than zero to offset the 0-axis current and a second period in which the sum of the voltages applied to the respective winding wires 210 to 230 is set to zero.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: HITACHI AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS, LTD.
    Inventors: Toshisada Mitsui, Hideki Miyazaki, Seigo Yukutake, Katsuhiro Hoshino
  • Patent number: 10488465
    Abstract: An abnormality diagnosing device diagnoses a driving abnormality of a single motor driven by a plurality of motor driving devices. The motor driving devices drive the motor by supplying three-phase alternating currents to a plurality of three-phase windings possessed by the motor. The abnormality diagnosing device is equipped with a rotational speed acquisition unit for acquiring a rotational speed value of the motor, a current acquisition unit for acquiring phase current values of respective phases flowing through the three-phase windings, and a determination unit for determining the presence of an abnormality, if an absolute value of the rotational speed value exceeds a predetermined value, and an absolute value of the phase current value of any one phase of the three-phase windings is less than a threshold value continuously for a predetermined time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yuuki Morita, Tadashi Okita, Kenji Takahashi
  • Patent number: 10486739
    Abstract: Short circuit abnormality between redundant systems with respect to motor redundant systems is detected. A motor actuator includes a first inverter circuit configured to control power supplied to a first motor stator, a second inverter circuit configured to control power supplied to a second motor stator, and a control unit portion including a calculation circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: HITACHI AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS, LTD.
    Inventor: Mitsuo Sasaki
  • Patent number: 10461665
    Abstract: A switch device for an electric motor includes at least one half-bridge having two semiconductor switches to energize at least one phase of the electric motor on demand. The switch device further includes a drive device assigned to the semiconductor switches and configured to actuate the semiconductor switches in accordance with an activation signal. The driver device includes an oscillator to generate an operating clock frequency, an apparatus to receive a synchronization signal, and a device to adjust the operating clock frequency in accordance with the synchronization signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Stefan Walz, Andreas Speinle, Markus Weber, Sylvia Wiedemann, Panagiotis Kosioris, Dirk Lamprecht, Alexander Krautstrunk
  • Patent number: 10446482
    Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a first contact receiving a first voltage, a second contact receiving a second voltage, one or more comparing elements comparing the first and second voltages, and one or more setting elements setting one or more parameters of the device in response to a comparison of the first and second voltages. When the first voltage is greater than the second voltage the setting element selects the first voltage as a high voltage, the second voltage as a low voltage, and sets a mode signal to a first value. When the second voltage is greater than the first voltage the setting element selects the first voltage as the low voltage, the second voltage as the high voltage, and sets the mode signal to a second value. The first and second values alter a condition of an electronic component coupled with the device between a first and second state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventor: Kentaro Iyoshi
  • Patent number: 10439525
    Abstract: A motor drive device includes a detecting unit that detects a rotational position of a rotor, a drive waveform generating circuit that generates a drive waveform, a control unit that synchronizes a phase of the rotational position of the rotor and a phase of the drive waveform, and a phase difference setting unit that sets a phase difference between the rotational position and the drive waveform during synchronization. An Apos generating unit calculates and outputs a position count proportional to a rotation amount of the rotor. A Bpos generating unit acquires the position count from the Apos generating unit and converts the count into a count value with the upper limit value as the maximum value. A Cpos generating unit multiplies the count value acquired from the Bpos generating unit by the conversion ratio, and calculates a count value with a predetermined upper limit value as the maximum value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshihiro Mizuo, Nobuyuki Horie
  • Patent number: 10381959
    Abstract: A motor control device includes: an inverter circuit including a semiconductor switching element for drive which drives a motor; a cut-off circuit including a semiconductor switching element for cut-off which cuts off an electric connection between the motor and the inverter circuit; a failure detection unit; a rotation number detection unit; and a control unit. In a case where the failure detection unit detects a failure of the semiconductor switching element for drive, the control unit turns off the semiconductor switching element for drive, and in a case where the number of rotations of the motor which is detected by the rotation number detection unit is less than a predetermined first threshold, the control unit further turns off the semiconductor switching element for cut-off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: OMRON AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Taiki Yamane, Toshio Saito
  • Patent number: 10355631
    Abstract: A current regulator is provided for an electric machine drive system for driving an electric machine. The current regulator is configurable to operate in a first configuration or a second configuration depending on a synchronous speed of the electric machine. A controller can configure an operational mode of the current regulator by selecting, based on the synchronous speed of the electric machine, either the first configuration of the current regulator or the second configuration of the current regulator as a currently active configuration, and can then execute the current regulator in accordance with the currently active configuration. The first configuration of the current regulator comprises a first set of elements and cross-coupling gain blocks, whereas the second configuration of the current regulator can include the first set of elements without the cross-coupling gain blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Caleb W. Secrest, Brent S. Gagas, Dwarakanath V. Simili
  • Patent number: 10351142
    Abstract: In a hybrid vehicle, when an abnormality occurs in a first current sensor and a second current sensor during operation of an engine, a controller is configured to execute one-phase on control to a first inverter, and perform gate shutoff to a second inverter. The controller is configured to, in switching a target phase in the one-phase on control, when an electric angle of a first motor is within a switching range where an assumption is made that a torque difference between torque of the first motor before switching of the target phase and torque of the first motor after switching of the target phase becomes equal to or less than a predetermined value, switch the target phase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takashi Fukaya, Shinjiro Ashida
  • Patent number: 10333438
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a motor driving circuit, which includes a position detecting circuit, a drive processing circuit, an adjusting voltage source, a parameter reading unit and a timing unit. The timing unit generates a timing signal, and the parameter reading unit processes the timing signal to obtain a consecutive first time interval and a second time interval. The parameter reading unit reads a first functional parameter voltage of a functional parameter pin in the first time interval and generates first functional parameter data to be written into a first register, and reads a second functional parameter voltage of a functional parameter pin in the second time interval and generates second functional parameter data to be written into a second register. The drive processing circuit drives a motor according to the first functional parameter data and the second functional parameter data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: ANPEC ELECTRONICS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kun-Min Chen, Ching-Feng Lai