Motor circuit
AssigneeZF Automotive UK Limited
InventorsNathanael Rice, Maciej Kudanowski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A motor circuit for driving a motor having two independent sets of windings forming 3 or more phases, wherein each phase of a first set is paired with a respective phase of a second set. A first bridge driver circuit has a top side switch and a bottom side switch driving each phase of the first set, and a second bridge driver circuit has a top side switch and a bottom side switch driving each phase of the second set. First and second current determining means determine current flowing in each respective sets of windings independent of the current flowing in the other set of phase windings. A third current determining means is configured to determine the sum of the current flowing in each pair of the N pairs of phases of the motor.
Claims12
A motor circuit for driving one or more motors, the one or more motors which in combination include at least two independent sets of windings forming N phases, where N is equal to 3 or higher, and in which each of the N phases of a first one of the sets of phase windings is paired with a respective phase of the N phases of a second one of the sets of phase windings, the circuit comprising:
- a first bridge driver circuit comprising for each phase of a first one of the sets of phase windings a top side switch and a bottom side switch;
- a second bridge driver circuit comprising for each phase of a second of the sets of phase windings a top side switch and a bottom side switch;
- a first current determining means for determining a first current at an input side of the first bridge driver circuit between the first bridge driver circuit and a positive supply rail or an earth line of a power supply corresponding to each phase of the first set of phase windings independent of a current flowing in the second set of phase windings;
- a second current determining means for determining a second current at an input side of the second bridge driver circuit between the second bridge driver circuit and the positive supply rail or the earth line of the power supply corresponding to each phase of the second set of phase windings independent of a current flowing in the first set of phase windings;
- a third current determining means comprising N current measurement sensors, each of the N current measurement sensors being associated with a matching pair of phases of the first one and second one of the sets of phase windings, and each of the N current measurement sensors configured to determine a respective sum of currents flowing between the matching pair of phases of the first one and the second one of the sets of phase windings;
- and
- at least one current controller configured to determine:
- a fault in the first bridge driver circuit by subtracting the second current from the respective sum of the currents, or
- a fault in the second bridge driver circuit by subtracting the first current from the respective sum of the currents.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.