Active current injection through a fuse for an electric mobile application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11660977-B2
Application number	US-201916712112-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2019
Priority date	Nov 8, 2017
Publication date	May 30, 2023
Grant date	May 30, 2023

Abstract

A system includes a vehicle comprising a motive electrical power path; a power distribution unit comprising a current protection circuit disposed in the motive electrical power path, the current protection circuit comprising a fuse; a current source circuit electrically coupled to the fuse and structured to inject a current across the fuse; and a voltage determination circuit electrically coupled to the fuse and structured to determine at least one of an injected voltage value and a fuse impedance value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a vehicle comprising a motive electrical power path;
a power distribution unit comprising a current protection circuit disposed in the motive electrical power path, the current protection circuit comprising a fuse;
a current source circuit electrically coupled to the fuse and structured to inject a current across the fuse; and
a voltage determination circuit electrically coupled to the fuse and structured to determine at least one of an injected voltage value and a fuse impedance value.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the motive electrical power path comprises a direct current power path, the current source circuit comprises at least one of an alternating current source or a time varying current source, and further comprising a hardware filter electrically coupled to the fuse.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the hardware filter is configured in response to an injection frequency of the current source circuit, and wherein the hardware filter comprises a high-pass filter.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the high-pass filter has a cutoff frequency determined in response to an injection frequency of the current source circuit.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the hardware filter is configured in response to an injection frequency of the current source circuit, wherein the hardware filter further comprises a low-pass filter.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the low-pass filter has a cutoff frequency determined in response to at least one injection frequency of the current source circuit or a load change value of the motive electrical power path.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein the hardware filter is configured in response to an injection frequency of the current source circuit, wherein the hardware filter comprises a low-pass filter and a high-pass filter, wherein a high-pass filtered voltage is analyzed separately from a low-pass filtered voltage.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the voltage determination circuit is further structured to determine the injected voltage value in response to an injected voltage drop.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the voltage determination circuit is further structured to determine the fuse impedance value in response to an injected voltage drop.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the voltage determination circuit is further structured to determine a load voltage drop of the fuse in response to an output of a hardware filter.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a load current circuit structured to determine a load current through the fuse in response to the fuse impedance value, and further in response to a load voltage drop across the fuse processed by a low-pass filter.

12. A controller, comprising:
a current source circuit electrically coupled to a fuse and structured to inject a current across the fuse disposed in a motive power circuit of a vehicle, the current source circuit comprising at least one of an alternating current source and a time varying current source, and further comprising a hardware filter electrically coupled to the fuse; and
a voltage determination circuit electrically coupled to the fuse and structured to determine at least one of an injected voltage value and a fuse impedance value in response to a measured voltage drop across the fuse.

13. The controller of claim 12 , wherein the hardware filter is configured in response to an injection frequency of the current source circuit, and wherein the hardware filter comprises a high-pass filter.

14. The controller of claim 13 , wherein the voltage determination circuit is further structured to operate a digital band-pass filter on the measured voltage drop across the fuse.

15. The controller of claim 12 , wherein the hardware filter is configured in response to an injection frequency of the current source circuit, wherein the hardware filter comprises a low-pass filter.

16. The controller of claim 12 , wherein the hardware filter is configured in response to an injection frequency of the current source circuit, wherein the hardware filter comprises a low-pass filter and a high-pass filter, and wherein a high-pass filtered voltage is analyzed separately from a low-pass filtered voltage.

17. A method, comprising:
injecting an alternating current across a fuse, where the fuse is electrically disposed between an electrical power source and an electrical load;
determining a base power through the fuse by performing a low-pass filter operation on one of a measured current value and a measured voltage value for the fuse; and
determining an injected current value by performing a digital high-pass filter operation on one of the measured current value and the measured voltage value for the fuse.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the low-pass filter operation is a digital low-pass filter operation.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein at least one of the low-pass filter operation and the digital high-pass filter operation comprise an adjustable parameter operation, wherein the adjustable parameter operation comprises adjusting at least one value for at least one of a digital low-pass filter and a digital high-pass filter.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the adjustable parameter operation is in response to a duty cycle of one of power and current through the fuse.

21. The method of claim 17 , further comprising sweeping an injected alternating current through a range of injection frequencies.

22. The method of claim 17 , further comprising injecting an alternating current across the fuse comprising injecting the alternating current across at a plurality of injection voltage amplitudes.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein at least one of the plurality of injection voltage amplitudes is determined in response to a power throughput of the fuse.

24. The method of claim 17 , further comprising processing a measured electrical value with a digital bandpass filter and with a high-pass filter, and determining at least one of a fuse resistance, fuse dynamic resistance, and fuse impedance.

Assignees

• Eaton Intelligent Power Ltd

Inventors

• Fisher Brandon William
• Douglass Robert Stephen

Classifications

• H01H85/0241

  Structural association of a fuse and another component or apparatus (switches with built-in fuses H01H9/10, spark-gap arresters H01H85/44, transformers and inductances H01F27/402, capacitors H01G2/14, lamps H01K1/66, semiconductors H10W20/493 or H10W42/80) · CPC title

• B60L3/0023

  Detecting, eliminating, remedying or compensating for drive train abnormalities, e.g. failures within the drive train · CPC title

• H01M50/505

  comprising a single busbar · CPC title

• H02H3/085

  making use of a thermal sensor, e.g. thermistor, heated by the excess current (also responsive to the temperature of the protected device H02H5/041, thermal images H02H6/00) · CPC title

• H01H39/00

  Switching devices actuated by an explosion produced within the device and initiated by an electric current · CPC title