# US 12,179,558 B2 · Electric vehicle thermal management and safety apparatus > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,179,558 B2 - Document ID: US12179558B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/857,895 - Filed: 2022-07-05 - Published: 2023-08-10 - Granted: 2024-12-31 - Earliest claimed: 2022-02-10 - Assignees: Rancho Del I.P. - Applicants: Rancho Del I.P. - Inventors: Andy Turudic - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12179558B2 ## CPC - B60H 1/034: {from the cooling liquid of the propulsion plant and from an electric heating device} - B60L 58/26: by cooling - B60H 1/00278: {for the battery} - B60H 1/00385: {for vehicles having an electrical drive, e.g. hybrid or fuel cell} - B60L 1/003: {to auxiliary motors, e.g. for pumps, compressors} - B60L 1/06: using only one supply - B60L 1/08: Methods and devices for control or regulation - B60L 3/0023: {Detecting, eliminating, remedying or compensating for drive train abnormalities, e.g. failures within the drive train} - B60L 15/02: characterised by the form of the current used in the control circuit - B60L 2240/34: Cabin temperature - B60L 2240/525: Temperature of converter or components thereof - B60L 2240/529: Current - B60L 2240/545: Temperature - Y02T 10/70: Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries - B60H: ARRANGEMENTS OF HEATING, COOLING, VENTILATING OR OTHER AIR-TREATING DEVICES SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR PASSENGER OR GOODS SPACES OF VEHICLES - B60L: PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (arrangements or mounting of electrical propulsion units or of plural diverse prime-movers for mutual or common propulsion in vehicles B60K1/00, B60K6/20; arrangements or mounting of electrical gearing in vehicles B60K17/12, B60K17/14; preventing wheel slip by reducing power in rail vehicles B61C15/08; dynamo-electric machines H02K; control or regulation of electric motors H02P); SUPPLYING ELECTRIC POWER FOR AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (electric coupling devices combined with mechanical couplings of vehicles B60D1/64; electric heating for vehicles B60H1/00); ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES IN GENERAL (control or regulation of electric motors H02P); MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; MONITORING OPERATING VARIABLES OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES; ELECTRIC SAFETY DEVICES FOR ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES - Y02T: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO TRANSPORTATION ## Abstract An ultra low cost electric vehicle heating apparatus, components thereof, and related method are herein described. A driver circuit operates a switching device at an intermediate state between fully-turned-off and fully-turned-on, in a high power dissipation heating mode, to efficiently produce heat energy for heating a passenger compartment, or energy storage system, of an electric vehicle. The driver circuit operates the switching device to have a fully-turned-off state and a fully-turned-on state in a main function mode for a traction inverter or an energy storage system charger of the electric vehicle. The driver circuit is operable to cycle the heating mode and the main function mode for combining such heating and such main function operation of the traction inverter, or the charger, without compromising the operation of the traction motor, or charger, while simultaneously eliminating many of the expensive resistive heating components in use by practitioners of the art. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A heating system, comprising: a circuit to operate a switching device at multiple states, wherein the multiple states include a first state between fully-turned-off and fully-turned-on, to produce heat in the switching device and a second state where the switching device is at one of a fully-turned-off state and a fully-turned-on state for an energy storage system, wherein the circuit is configured to cycle the first state and the second state to provide for heating of a cabin of an electric vehicle (EV) and for propulsion of the EV. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the energy storage system includes an inverter. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The system of claim 2, wherein the inverter is disposed in a thermal transport path having at least one route to a heat exchanger for heating the energy storage system. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising: a controller to provide signals to the circuit to operate an inverter included with the energy storage system. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising: the circuit having a current sensor; and a controller, to sense current through the switching device via the current sensor and adjust a control terminal of the switching device to adjust current of the first state. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising: the circuit having a thermal sensor; and a controller, to adjust a control of the circuit based on sensing via the thermal sensor. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the switching device is included in a semiconductor based power supply system. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the switching device comprises one of a MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) or an IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor). ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein the switching device is integrated into one of a land based vehicle, an air based vehicle or a water based vehicle. ### Claim 10 An electric vehicle (EV) heating system, comprising: an inverter having a plurality of switching devices for operating an electric motor; and a circuit coupled to one of the plurality of switching devices to: cycle operation of the one of the plurality of the switching devices between a first state and a second state, the first state being between fully-turned-off and fully-turned-on for a heating mode and the second state where the switching device is at one of a fully-turned-off state and a fully-turned-on state; operate the switching device to have a fully-turned-off state and a fully-turned-on state in a main function mode for the inverter; and cycle the heating mode and the main function mode for combined heating and main function operation of the inverter. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, wherein: the inverter comprises a three-phase inverter having a high-side switch and a low-side switch for each phase. ### Claim 12 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, wherein: the inverter comprises a multilevel inverter comprising additional switching devices. ### Claim 13 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, further comprising: a controller coupled to the circuit to operate the inverter for both operating the electric motor and heating one of a passenger compartment or an energy storage system. ### Claim 14 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, further comprising: at least one sensor coupled to one of the plurality of switching devices; and a controller, to receive an output of the at least one sensor and adjust a control terminal of at least one of the plurality of switching devices to adjust the intermediate state. ### Claim 15 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, further comprising: a heat exchanger for heating a passenger compartment. ### Claim 16 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10, further comprising: a heat exchanger for heating an energy storage system. ### Claim 17 A method, comprising: operating each of a plurality of switching devices of a power supply system through a respective circuit; operating at least one of the plurality of switching devices of the power supply system through its respective circuit with the switching device at an intermediate state between fully-turned-off and fully-turned-on to produce heating; and cycling a main function mode and a heating mode through each of the respective circuits for combined main function operation of the power supply system and heating function operation. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The method of claim 17, wherein producing the heating comprises managing a pathway for traversal through one of a first heat exchanger and a second heat exchanger. ### Claim 19 An electric vehicle (EV) safety system, comprising: a circuit to operate a switching device at multiple states, wherein the multiple states include a first state between fully-turned-off and fully-turned-on, to produce heat in the switching device and a second state where the switching device is at one of a fully-turned-off state and a fully-turned-on state for an energy storage system, wherein the circuit is operable to transition from the second state to the first state to provide for thermal dissipation of electrical energy responsive to a signal detected from a supplemental restraint system of the EV.