Method for operating a circuit assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10651780-B2
Application number	US-201515513627-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 2, 2015
Priority date	Sep 24, 2014
Publication date	May 12, 2020
Grant date	May 12, 2020

Abstract

A method for operating a circuit system having at least three control stages for at least three phases, each of the control stages having a high-side switch and a low-side switch, each of the high-side switches and each of the low-side switches being capable of being brought into an electrically conductive state and into an electrically non-conductive state, a quantity being determined that influences the temperature of the high-side switches and/or of the low-side switches, either the high-side switches or the low-side switches being selected in a group as a function of the quantity influencing the temperature, and the selected high-side switches or low-side switches being controlled in a freewheeling phase in such a way that the selected high-side switches or low-side switches form a freewheel during the freewheeling phase.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating a circuit system having at least three control stages for at least three phases, each of the control stages having a high-side switch and a low-side switch, each of the high-side switches and each of the low-side switches being capable of being brought into an electrically conductive state and into an electrically non-conductive state, the method comprising:
determining a quantity that influences a temperature of at least one of the high-side switches and the low-side switches;
selecting, in groups, either the high-side switches or the low-side switches as a function of the quantity influencing the temperature; and
controlling the selected high-side switches or low-side switches in a freewheeling phase, so that the selected high-side switches or low-side switches form a freewheel during the freewheeling phase;
wherein the high-side switches are situated and mounted in a center segment of a semiconductor module, and the low-side switches are situated and mounted in an edge segment of the semiconductor module, so that the high-side switches have a better cooling connection to the semiconductor module than the low-side switches,
wherein the edge segment and the center segment are separate from one another on the semiconductor module,
wherein the center segment has a larger surface area than does the edge segment, and wherein the semiconductor module is an integrated circuit,
wherein the semiconductor module is on a semiconductor substrate, and
wherein the high-side switches are formed as p-channel semiconductor switching elements having a larger surface than the low-side switches, which are formed as n-channel semiconductor switching elements, so as to improve heat dissipation of the high-side switches.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein during the freewheeling phase, the selected high-side switches or low-side switches that form the freewheel are in a conductive state, and the other of the high-side switches or low-side switches are in a non-conductive state.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein at least one of: a power loss, a current, and a temperature of at least one of the high-side switches and the low-side switches is determined as the quantity influencing the temperature.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein during the selecting in groups, the quantity influencing the temperature is compared to a temperature boundary value, and when there is an exceeding of the temperature boundary value, the high-side switches or low-side switches are selected that do not exceed the temperature boundary value.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the temperature-influencing quantity of the high-side switches and of the low-side switches is determined, and the high-side switches or low-side switches having the lower temperature-influencing quantity are selected.

6. A computing unit for operating a circuit system having at least three control stages for at least three phases, each of the control stages having a high-side switch and a low-side switch, each of the high-side switches and each of the low-side switches being capable of being brought into an electrically conductive state and into an electrically non-conductive state, comprising:
a computing device configured to perform the following:
determine a quantity that influences a temperature of at least one of the high-side switches and the low-side switches;
select, in groups, either the high-side switches or the low-side switches as a function of the quantity influencing the temperature; and
control the selected high-side switches or low-side switches in a freewheeling phase, so that the selected high-side switches or low-side switches form a freewheel during the freewheeling phase;

wherein the high-side switches are situated and mounted in a center segment of a semiconductor module, and the low-side switches are situated and mounted in an edge segment of the semiconductor module, so that the high-side switches have a better cooling connection to the semiconductor module than the low-side switches,
wherein the edge segment and the center segment are separate from one another on the semiconductor module,
wherein the center segment has a larger surface area than does the edge segment, and wherein the semiconductor module is an integrated circuit,
wherein the semiconductor module is on a semiconductor substrate, and
wherein the high-side switches are formed as p-channel semiconductor switching elements having a larger surface than the low-side switches, which are formed as n-channel semiconductor switching elements, so as to improve heat dissipation of the high-side switches.

7. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer program, which is executable by a computing unit, comprising:
a computer program for operating a circuit system having at least three control stages for at least three phases, each of the control stages having a high-side switch and a low-side switch, each of the high-side switches and each of the low-side switches being capable of being brought into an electrically conductive state and into an electrically non-conductive state, by performing the following:
determining a quantity that influences a temperature of at least one of the high-side switches and the low-side switches;
selecting, in groups, either the high-side switches or the low-side switches as a function of the quantity influencing the temperature; and
controlling the selected high-side switches or low-side switches in a freewheeling phase, so that the selected high-side switches or low-side switches form a freewheel during the freewheeling phase;

wherein the high-side switches are situated and mounted in a center segment of a semiconductor module, and the low-side switches are situated and mounted in an edge segment of the semiconductor module, so that the high-side switches have a better cooling connection to the semiconductor module than the low-side switches,
wherein the edge segment and the center segment are separate from one another on the semiconductor module,
wherein the center segment has a larger surface area than does the edge segment, and wherein the semiconductor module is an integrated circuit,
wherein the semiconductor module is on a semiconductor substrate, and
wherein the high-side switches are formed as p-channel semiconductor switching elements having a larger surface than the low-side switches, which are formed as n-channel semiconductor switching elements, so as to improve heat dissipation of the high-side switches.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 7 , wherein the quantity that influences the temperature of the high-side switches and/or of the low-side switches includes at least one of a power loss, a current, a current level, a current duration, and a temperature.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the quantity that influences the temperature of the high-side switches and/or of the low-side switches includes at least one of a power loss, a current, a current level, a current duration, and a temperature.

10. The computing unit as recited in claim 6 , wherein the quantity that influences the temperature of the high-side switches and/or of the low-side switches includes at least one of a power loss, a current, a current level, a current duration, and a temperature.

Assignees

• Bosch Gmbh Robert

Inventors

• Friedrich Stefan
• Dierolf Simon

Classifications

• H02P29/02 Primary

  Providing protection against overload without automatic interruption of supply (protection against faults of stepper motors H02P8/36) · CPC title

• Y10S388/9072

  Bridge circuit · CPC title

• H02P6/085

  in a bridge configuration · CPC title

• H02P29/68 Primary

  based on the temperature of a drive component or a semiconductor component · CPC title