Voltage supply module control for a fuel injected engine
AssigneeFca US LLC
InventorsMichael J Prucka, Joshua M Burt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for controlling power for a fuel injector includes a fuel injector configured to inject fuel to a cylinder of an engine and a powertrain control module generating a bypass enable signal or a boost enable based on the engine cranking signal. A bypass voltage circuit is electrically coupled to the fuel injector and is configured to provide a system voltage of a vehicle to the fuel injector during a bypass enable signal. A boost voltage circuit is electrically coupled to the fuel injector and configured to increase a system voltage of a vehicle to a boosted voltage during the boost enable signal, wherein the boosted voltage is higher than the system voltage.
Claims20
An apparatus for controlling power for a fuel injector, the apparatus comprising:
- a fuel injector configured to inject fuel to a cylinder of an engine;
- a powertrain control module generating a bypass enable signal or a boost enable based on an engine cranking signal corresponding to starting of the engine;
- a bypass voltage circuit is electrically coupled to the fuel injector and configured to provide a system voltage of a vehicle to the fuel injector during a bypass enable signal;
- and
- a boost voltage circuit is electrically coupled to the fuel injector and configured to increase a system voltage of a vehicle to a boosted voltage during the boost enable signal when the engine cranking signal corresponds to the engine starting and, when the engine has started and the engine cranking signal has ceased, discontinuing the boost enable signal so the fuel injector is powered using the system voltage, wherein the boosted voltage is higher than the system voltage.
A method for controlling power to a fuel injector, the method comprising:
- generating a crank signal for starting an engine while the engine is starting;
- generating a boost voltage higher than a system voltage;
- operating the fuel injectors with the boost voltage during the crank signal;
- after the engine is started and the crank signal has ceased, activating a bypass voltage circuit to couple the system voltage to the fuel injectors and disable operating the fuel injectors from using the boost voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.