Load drive device and method for controlling electronic control device

Abstract

A load drive device that drives and controls an inductive load based on a PWM signal from a microcomputer is provided, and the load drive device has excellent reliability and responsiveness capable of quickly detecting disconnection of the inductive load. The load drive device includes a microcomputer and a driver circuit that drives an inductive load by a pulse width modulation signal of a constant cycle based on a control command from the microcomputer, in which the driver circuit includes a current monitoring circuit that monitors a current flowing through the inductive load, and a disconnection diagnosis circuit that detects disconnection of the inductive load based on a current value detected by the current monitoring circuit, and the disconnection diagnosis circuit obtains a change amount of a current value detected by the current monitoring circuit, and when the change amount is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, determines that the inductive load is disconnected and notifies the microcomputer of the disconnection.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.