Sensor for detecting an emission amount of particulate matter

A sensor comprising:

• a collection part in which a plurality of filter members, which are for collecting particulate matter in exhaust gas and have different physical properties from each other, are arranged in descending order of the physical property from an exhaust upstream side to an exhaust downstream side of the exhaust gas;
• a plurality of pairs of electrodes, each pair of the plurality of pairs of electrodes being arranged to one of the plurality of filter members, and the electrodes of each pair of the plurality of pairs of electrodes facing each other such that the one of the plurality of filter is members interposed between the each pair of the plurality of pairs of electrodes;
• and
• an electronic control unit (ECU),
• wherein the physical property is a porosity or an average pore size;
• and
• estimation processing for estimating a particulate matter amount collected on each of the plurality of filter members having the different physical properties based on a capacitance change amount between the each pair of the plurality of pairs of electrodes;
• wherein the ECU estimates a particulate matter amount in the exhaust gas in real time by sequentially adding up the particulate matter amounts collected on the each of the plurality of filter members based on the capacitance change amounts thereof, during a regeneration interval period from an end of a filter regeneration to a start of a next filter regeneration by the ECU.

A sensor comprising:

• a collection part in which a plurality of filter members, which are for collecting particulate matter in exhaust gas and have different average pore sizes from each other, are arranged in descending order of the average pore size from an exhaust upstream side to an exhaust downstream side of the exhaust gas;
• a plurality of pairs of electrodes, each pair of the plurality of pairs of electrodes being arranged to one of the plurality of filter members, and the electrodes of each pair of the plurality of pairs of electrodes facing each other such that the one of the plurality of filter members is interposed between the each pair of the plurality of pairs of electrodes;
• and
• an electronic control unit (ECU) which estimates a particulate matter amount collected on each of the plurality of filter members having the different average pore sizes from each other based on a capacitance change amount between the each pair of the plurality of pairs of electrodes;
• wherein the ECU estimates a particulate matter amount in the exhaust gas in real time by sequentially adding up the particulate matter amounts collected on the each of the plurality of filter members based on the capacitance change amounts thereof, during a regeneration interval period from an end of a filter regeneration to a start of a next filter regeneration by the ECU.