Electronic device for acquiring specific information of respective switching elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9660512-B2
Application number	US-201314765451-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 12, 2013
Priority date	Apr 12, 2013
Publication date	May 23, 2017
Grant date	May 23, 2017

Abstract

There is provided an electronic device comprising: a plurality of switching elements connected to a power supply; a plurality of specific information storage units provided for the corresponding switching elements and configured to store specific information of respective corresponding switching elements; a processing unit configured to control the switching elements; and a communication line disposed between the specific information storage units and the processing unit, through which the specific information of the respective switching elements is sent from the specific information storage units to the processing unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
a plurality of switching elements connected to a power supply;
a plurality of specific information storage units provided for the corresponding switching elements and configured to store specific information of respective corresponding switching elements, wherein the specific information storage units include a plurality of driving circuits provided for the corresponding switching element;
a processing unit configured to control the switching elements through the driving circuits; and
a communication line disposed between the specific information storage units and the processing unit, through which the specific information of the respective switching elements is sent from the specific information storage units to the processing unit, the communication line being single and common to the specific information storage units; and
a plurality of drive signal communication lines disposed between the respective driving circuits and the processing unit through which drive signals for driving the respective switching elements are sent from the processing unit to the driving circuits, wherein
the driving circuits send the specific information when receiving a predetermined signal from the processing unit through the drive signal communication lines, and
wherein the predetermined signal is generated at a higher frequency than a carrier signal for switching on/off the switching elements.

2. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the predetermined signal is a pulse signal whose pulse width is longer than a period corresponding to a frequency of a carrier signal for switching on/off the switching elements.

3. An electronic device comprising:
a plurality of switching elements connected to a power supply;
a plurality of specific information storage units provided for the corresponding switching elements and configured to store specific information of respective corresponding switching elements, wherein the specific information storage units include a plurality of driving circuits provided for the corresponding switching elements;
a processing unit configured to control the switching elements through the driving circuits; and
a communication line disposed between the specific information storage units and the processing unit, through which the specific information of the respective switching elements is sent from the specific information storage units to the processing unit, wherein the driving circuits are connected to the power supply through delay resistors whose resistance values are different from each other.

4. An electronic device comprising:
a plurality of switching elements connected to a power supply;
a plurality of specific information storage units provided for the corresponding switching elements and configured to store specific information of respective corresponding switching elements;
a processing unit configured to control the switching elements;
a communication line disposed between the specific information storage units and the processing unit, through which the specific information of the respective switching elements is sent from the specific information storage units to the processing unit, the communication line being single and common to the specific information storage units; and
a shutdown circuit, connected to the single communication line through a low-pass filter, configured to switch off the switching elements upon an abnormality thereof being detected.

5. The electronic device as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the respective driving circuits cause the shutdown circuit to perform a shutdown operation when detecting short-circuiting abnormality, and send the specific information onto the single communication line at different timings according to a certain sending sequence after performing the shutdown operation.

Assignees

• Osanai Yosuke
• Onishi Yukio
• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Osanai Yosuke
• Onishi Yukio

Classifications

• H02M1/088 Primary

  for the simultaneous control of series or parallel connected semiconductor devices · CPC title

• H03K17/18

  Modifications for indicating state of switch · CPC title

• H02M1/092 Primary

  the control signals being transmitted optically · CPC title

• H02M7/5387

  in a bridge configuration · CPC title

• H03K17/56

  by the use, as active elements, of semiconductor devices (using diodes H03K17/74) · CPC title