Tire pressure sensor modules, tire pressure monitoring system, wheel, methods and computer programs for providing information related to a tire pressure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9925837-B2
Application number	US-201715469862-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 27, 2017
Priority date	Jul 18, 2014
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

A first tire pressure sensor module is configured to provide information related to a pressure of a tire of a vehicle and comprises a pressure sensor configured to determine the information related to the pressure of the tire. The pressure module further includes a controller configured to selectively operate the tire pressure sensor module in an active state and in an inactive state, wherein an energy consumption of the tire pressure sensor module is lower in the inactive state than in the active state. The controller is further configured to control an output of the information related to the pressure of the tire in the active state, and operate the tire pressure sensor module in the inactive state based on determining that information related to a velocity of the tire indicates a velocity above a threshold.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A tire pressure monitoring system, comprising:
a first pressure sensor module at a first location of a tire; and
a second pressure sensor module at a second location of the tire different from the first location,
wherein the second pressure sensor module is powered by an energy harvester, and
wherein the tire pressure monitoring system is configured to transmit, in a first rotating state of the tire, pressure information sensed by the first pressure sensor module to an electronic control unit and, in a second, different rotating state of the tire, pressure information sensed by the second pressure sensor module to the electronic control unit.

2. The tire pressure monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein the second pressure sensor module is powered by an energy harveter.

3. A wheel for a vehicle comprising a tire monitoring system according to claim 1 .

4. The wheel of claim 3 , wherein the first pressure sensor module is configured to provide information related to a tire pressure in a first lower velocity range of the wheel and wherein the second pressure sensor module is configured to provide information related to a tire pressure in a second higher velocity range.

5. The wheel of claim 4 , wherein the first velocity range of the wheel starts at or above zero velocity.

6. A method, comprising:
sensing a tire pressure with a first sensor module mounted at a first location of a tire;
transmitting first tire pressure information based on the sensing of the tire pressure with the first sensor module to an electronic control unit at least in a first time interval;
operating the first sensor module in an inactive state at least in a second time interval;
sensing the tire pressure at least during the second time interval with a second sensor module, wherein the second sensor module is mounted at a second location of the tire, wherein the second location is different from the first location; and
transmitting second tire pressure information based on the sensing of the tire pressure with the second sensor module to an electronic control unit at least during the second time interval.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the second sensor module is powered by an energy harvester.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the second sensor module is mounted inside of the tire.

Assignees

• Infineon Technologies Ag

Inventors

• Peine Andre
• Lange Thomas

Classifications

• B60C23/0411

  Piezoelectric generators · CPC title

• B60C23/0486 Primary

  comprising additional sensors in the wheel or tyre mounted monitoring device, e.g. movement sensors, microphones or earth magnetic field sensors · CPC title

• B60C23/0488

  Movement sensor, e.g. for sensing angular speed, acceleration or centripetal force · CPC title

• B60C23/0454

  Means for changing operation mode, e.g. sleep mode, factory mode or energy save mode · CPC title

• B60C23/0459

  self triggered by motion sensor · CPC title