Method and apparatus for identifying discharge failure of a piezoelectric circuitry

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016248346-A1
Application number	US-201615007065-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 26, 2016
Priority date	Feb 21, 2015
Publication date	Aug 25, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a method and apparatus for identifying discharge failure of a piezoelectric circuitry. The apparatus comprises a piezoelectric circuitry consisting of charging and discharging circuit with a microcontroller to compute the time required to charge and discharge the piezoelectric element respectively. Based on the first charging time and the second charging time corresponding to the first and second charging-discharging cycle respectively, the difference between the first and the second charging time is determined. The discharge failure in the piezoelectric circuit is identified where the first charging time is greater than the second charging time.

First claim

We claim:

1 . An apparatus for identifying failure of a circuit adapted to discharge a piezoelectric element, the apparatus comprising: a piezoelectric circuitry comprising a charging circuit and a discharging circuit adapted to charge and discharge a piezoelectric element respectively, wherein the piezoelectric circuitry further comprises a microcontroller configured to:
determine a first charging time and a first discharging time corresponding to a first cycle associated with the charging and the discharging of the piezoelectric element; determine a second charging time and a second discharging time corresponding to a second cycle associated with the charging and the discharging of the piezoelectric element; compare the second charging time with the first charging time; and identify failure in the discharging circuit wherein the failure in the discharging circuit occurs if the difference between the first charging time and the second charging time is greater than a predefined threshold value.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the charging circuit is connected with a transistor wherein the transistor uses a pulse-width modulation waveform to control the charging of the piezoelectric element.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the microcontroller is connected in voltage sampler to compute the time required to charge and discharge the piezoelectric circuit.

4 . The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the voltage sampler is further connected to a timing system to measure the time required by the piezoelectric circuitry to build its charge from zero.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is embedded in an implantable medical device.

6 . A method for identifying failure of a circuit adapted to discharge a piezoelectric element, the method comprising:
determining, by a microcontroller, a first charging time and a first discharging time corresponding to a first cycle associated with the charging and the discharging of the piezoelectric element; determining, by the microcontroller, a second charging time and a second discharging time corresponding to a second cycle associated with the charging and the discharging of the piezoelectric element; comparing, by the microcontroller, the second charging time with the first charging time; and identifying, by the microcontroller, failure in the discharging circuit wherein the failure in the discharging circuit occurs if the difference between the first charging time and the second charging time is greater than a predefined threshold value.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the charging circuit is connected with a transistor wherein the transistor uses a pulse-width modulation waveform to control the charging of the piezoelectric element.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the microcontroller is connected in voltage sampler to compute the time required to charge and discharge the piezoelectric circuit.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the voltage sampler is further connected to a timing system to measure the time required by the piezoelectric circuitry to build its charge from zero.

10 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the apparatus is embedded in an implantable medical device.

Assignees

• Hcl Technologies Ltd

Inventors

• Sadasivam Siva Sakthivel
• Thangaraju Shyam

Classifications

• H02N2/0075 Primary

  Electrical details, e.g. drive or control circuits or methods · CPC title

• H01L41/042

  Electricity · mapped topic

• A61M5/16804 Primary

  Flow controllers · CPC title

• A61M2205/8206

  battery-operated · CPC title

• H10N30/802

  Circuitry or processes for operating piezoelectric or electrostrictive devices not otherwise provided for, e.g. drive circuits · CPC title