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US 10,951,106 B2Granted
Semiconductor device
AssigneeDenso Corporation
InventorHironori Akiyama
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of switching elements electrically connected in parallel with each other, a control unit that outputs a control signal for controlling a current supplied to each of the switching elements, and a temperature estimation unit that estimates a temperature difference between the switching elements. When an estimated temperature difference becomes equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold temperature, the control unit shifts an operation mode to a stop mode for stopping driving of a switching element having a temperature higher than the other.
Claims13
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a plurality of switching elements that are electrically connected in parallel with each other;
- a control unit that is configured to output a control signal for controlling a current supplied to each of the plurality of switching elements;
- and
- a temperature estimation unit that is configured to estimate a temperature difference between the plurality of switching elements, wherein
- the control unit shifts an operation mode to a stop mode to stop driving of at least one of the plurality of switching elements, which has a temperature higher than the other, in response to the estimated temperature difference being equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold temperature,
- the control signal indicates an ON period and an OFF period of voltage application repetitively in a predetermined cycle,
- the control unit shifts the operation mode to a thinning mode by outputting the control signal in which the ON period is thinned to the at least one of the plurality of switching elements having the temperature higher than the other, in response to the estimated temperature difference being equal to or higher than a first threshold temperature, and
- the control unit shifts the operation mode to the stop mode by outputting the control signal having only the OFF period to the at least one of the plurality of switching elements having the temperature higher than the other, in response to the estimated temperature difference being equal to or higher than a second threshold temperature higher than the first threshold temperature.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.