Control circuit and motor control device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11186311-B2
Application number	US-202016795691-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2020
Priority date	Feb 21, 2019
Publication date	Nov 30, 2021
Grant date	Nov 30, 2021

Abstract

A control circuit connected to a control device configured to control a motor connected to a rotation shaft that is convertible into a turning angle of a turning wheel, the control circuit includes a main circuit configured to calculates a rotation number indicating a rotational state of the rotation shaft based on a detection signal from a rotation angle sensor configured to detect a rotation angle of the motor as a relative angle, a detection result communication unit configured to detect whether or not there is an abnormality in the main circuit and output a detection result to the control device, and a pseudo abnormality generating unit configured to set the detection result to be abnormal based on a pseudo abnormal signal from the control device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A control circuit connected to a control device, the control device being configured to control a motor connected to a rotation shaft that is convertible into a turning angle of a turning wheel, the control circuit comprising:
a main circuit configured to calculate a rotation number indicating a rotational state of the rotation shaft based on a detection signal from a rotation angle sensor configured to detect a rotation angle of the motor as a relative angle;
a detection result communication unit configured to detect whether or not there is an abnormality in the main circuit and output a detection result to the control device; and
a pseudo abnormality generating unit configured to instruct the detection result communication unit to set the detection result to be abnormal, regardless of whether the abnormality is actually present in the main circuit, in response to receiving a pseudo abnormal signal from the control device,
wherein in a case where the pseudo abnormality generating unit accepts the pseudo abnormal signal from the control device, the pseudo abnormality generating unit sets the detection result output from the detection result communication unit to be abnormal and causes the detection result communication unit to output the detection result to the control device.

2. The control circuit according to claim 1 ,
wherein the detection result communication unit includes an abnormality detection circuit configured to detect whether or not there is an abnormality in the main circuit and generate the detection result, and a communication interface configured to output the detection result generated by the abnormality detection circuit to the control device, and
wherein in the case where the pseudo abnormality generating unit accepts the pseudo abnormal signal from the control device, the pseudo abnormality generating unit causes the abnormality detection circuit to generate the detection result indicating that the main circuit is abnormal.

3. The control circuit according to claim 2 ,
wherein the main circuit comprises a power supply circuit that generates a control voltage to be supplied to another circuit based on a power supply voltage,
wherein the abnormality detection circuit is a voltage abnormality detection circuit that detects whether or not there is an abnormality in the power supply circuit based on whether or not the control voltage is within a set predetermined voltage range, and
wherein in the case where the pseudo abnormal signal is accepted from the control device, the pseudo abnormality generating unit causes the voltage abnormality detection circuit to generate the detection result indicating that the power supply circuit is abnormal by changing upper and lower limit values that define the predetermined voltage range.

4. The control circuit according to claim 1 ,
wherein the detection result communication unit includes an abnormality detection circuit configured to detect whether or not there is an abnormality in the main circuit, and a communication interface configured to output the detection result of the abnormality detection circuit to the control device, and
wherein in the case where the pseudo abnormality generating unit accepts the pseudo abnormal signal from the control device, the pseudo abnormality generating unit causes the communication interface to output the detection result indicating that the main circuit is abnormal.

5. The control circuit according to claim 4 ,
wherein the main circuit comprises a power supply circuit that generates a control voltage to be supplied to another circuit based on a power supply voltage,
wherein the abnormality detection circuit is a voltage abnormality detection circuit that detects whether or not there is an abnormality in the power supply circuit based on whether or not the control voltage is within a predetermined voltage range, and
wherein the detection result communication unit includes an abnormality detection result generating unit which outputs the detection result indicating abnormality of the main circuit to the communication interface regardless of a detection result of the voltage abnormality detection circuit in the case where the detection result communication unit accepts the pseudo abnormal signal from the control device.

6. A motor control device comprising:
the control circuit according to claim 1 ; and
the control device,
wherein the control device outputs the pseudo abnormal signal to the pseudo abnormality generating unit, and determines whether or not there is an abnormality in the detection result communication unit based on the detection result output by the detection result communication unit.

7. A control circuit connected to a microcomputer, the microcomputer being configured to control a motor connected to a rotation shaft that is convertible into a turning angle of a turning wheel, the control circuit comprising:
a power supply circuit that generates a control voltage to be supplied to another circuit based on an input power supply voltage;
a counter circuit configured to calculate a rotation number indicating a rotational state of the rotation shaft based on a detection signal from a rotation angle sensor configured to detect a rotation angle of the motor as a relative angle;
a voltage abnormality detection circuit configured to detect whether or not there is an abnormality in the power supply circuit based on whether or not the control voltage is within a set predetermined voltage range, and generate a detection result;
a communication interface configured to output the detection result to the microcomputer; and
a built-in self-test (BIST) circuit configured to instruct the voltage abnormality detection circuit to set the detection result to be abnormal, regardless of whether the abnormality is actually present in the power supply circuit, in response to receiving a pseudo abnormal signal transmitted from the microcomputer,
wherein in a case where the BIST circuit accepts the pseudo abnormal signal from the microcomputer, the BIST circuit sets the detection result generated by the voltage abnormality detection circuit to be abnormal and causes the communication interface to output the detection result to the microcomputer.

8. The control circuit according to claim 7 , wherein the BIST circuit is further configured to diagnose an abnormality in the voltage abnormality detection circuit based on output from the voltage abnormality detection circuit.

Assignees

• Jtekt Corp
• Renesas Electronics Corp

Inventors

• Oda Masato
• Kozuka Kenichi
• Suzuki Hiromasa
• Oki Masashi

Classifications

• B62D5/049 Primary

  detecting sensor failures · CPC title

• B62D15/021

  Determination of steering angle · CPC title

• B62D5/0487

  detecting motor faults (B62D5/0496 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B62D15/0235

  by measuring or deriving directly at the electric power steering motor · CPC title

• B62D5/046 Primary

  Controlling the motor · CPC title