US 12,227,086 B2Granted

Active discharge of an electric drive system

AssigneePower Integrations, Inc.

InventorsAndreas Volke, Christoph Dustert

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Abstract

An electric drive system for a vehicle includes an inverter having at least one phase leg, wherein a first of the phase legs includes a first power switch; an internal voltage supply configured to generate an internal supply voltage regulated with respect to a voltage on a rail and a second voltage, wherein the internal voltage supply is configured to reduce a voltage difference between the internal supply voltage and the second voltage in response to a signal indicating a shut-down or a fault; and a gate drive channel configured to drive the first power switch into conductance by applying the voltage difference between the internal supply voltage and the second voltage between a control terminal and a main terminal of the power switch, gate drive channel configured to continue the driving of the first power switch for a time duration after the signal indicating the shut-down or the fault.

Claims15

Dependent claims

An electric drive system for a vehicle, the electric drive system comprising:

an inverter having at least one phase leg, wherein a first of the at least one phase leg includes a first power switch;
an internal voltage supply configured to generate
a) an internal supply voltage regulated with respect to a voltage on a rail coupled to a dc power supply, and
b) a second voltage,
wherein the internal voltage supply is configured to reduce a voltage difference between the internal supply voltage and the second voltage in response to a signal indicating a shut-down or a fault of the vehicle,
wherein the internal voltage supply comprises a voltage divider configured to generate the second voltage by dividing a difference between the internal supply voltage and the voltage on the rail with respect to which the internal supply voltage is regulated;
and
a gate drive channel configured to drive the first power switch into conductance by applying the voltage difference between the internal supply voltage and the second voltage between a control terminal and a main terminal of the power switch, the gate drive channel further configured to continue the driving of the first power switch for a time duration after the signal indicating the shut-down or the fault of the vehicle.

5 more elements

A control system configured to control a power switch that comprises a first terminal, a second terminal, and a control terminal, wherein conductance between the first and second terminals of the power switch is responsive to a difference between a voltage on the control terminal and a voltage on the second terminal, wherein the control system comprises:

a supply capacitor coupled between a positive rail and a negative rail of the control system;
a system controller configured to detect a discharge command in the control system to discharge the supply capacitor, the system controller configured to output an adjust signal in response to the discharge command;
and
a switch controller coupled to the system controller and configured to receive the adjust signal, wherein the switch controller is configured to control the difference between the voltage on the control terminal and the voltage on the second terminal to vary the conductance between the first and second terminals of the power switch, and wherein the switch controller is further configured to vary the voltage on the second terminal of the power switch in response to the adjust signal, the varying of the voltage configured to decrease an achievable conductance between the first and second terminals of the power switch in response to the adjust signal.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 17/581,777Filed 21 Jan 2022
Priority: EP 2115784618 Feb 2021
Published: US 2022/0258610 A118 Aug 2022
Granted: 18 Feb 2025
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification16 codes

B60L 3/0023
Electric devices on electrically-propelled vehicles for safety purposes; Monitoring operating variables, e.g. speed, deceleration or energy…:…
B60L 3/003
Detecting, eliminating, remedying or compensating for drive train abnormalities, e.g. failures within the drive train: relating to inverters
B60L 3/0046
Detecting, eliminating, remedying or compensating for drive train abnormalities, e.g. failures within the drive train: relating to electric energy…
B60L 3/04
Electric devices on electrically-propelled vehicles for safety purposes; Monitoring operating variables, e.g. speed, deceleration or energy…:…