Systems and methods for sensing temperature of inverter for electric vehicle
AssigneeBorgWarner US Technologies LLC
InventorMark Wendell Gose
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system comprises: an inverter configured to convert DC power from a battery to AC power to drive a motor, wherein the inverter includes: a power module including a drain terminal and a source terminal; one or more phase switches configured to control a current flow between the drain terminal and the source terminal; and a point-of-use controller including two or more thermal sensors on the point-of-use controller, the point-of-use controller configured to determine a temperature of the one or more phase switches using the two or more thermal sensors.
Claims17
A system comprising:
- an inverter configured to convert DC power from a battery to AC power to drive a motor, wherein the inverter includes:
- a power module including a drain terminal and a source terminal;
- one or more phase switches configured to control a current flow between the drain terminal and the source terminal;
- and
- a point-of-use controller including two or more thermal sensors on the point-of-use controller, the point-of-use controller configured to determine a temperature of the one or more phase switches using the two or more thermal sensors,
- wherein the point-of-use controller is configured to determine the temperature of the one or more phase switches using a temperature gradient of the point-of-use controller using the two or more thermal sensors.
A system comprising:
- a power module for an inverter configured to convert DC power to AC power, the power module including a drain terminal and a source terminal;
- one or more phase switches configured to control a current flow between the drain terminal and the source terminal;
- and
- a point-of-use controller including two or more thermal sensors on the point-of-use controller, the point-of-use controller configured to determine a temperature of the one or more phase switches using the two or more thermal sensors,
- wherein the point-of-use controller is configured to determine the temperature of the one or more phase switches using respective absolute temperatures of the two or more thermal sensors and a difference between the respective absolute temperatures of the two or more thermal sensors.
A system including one or more controllers comprising:
- a first thermal sensor at a first location on the one or more controllers;
- and
- a second thermal sensor at a second location on the one or more controllers,
- wherein the one or more controllers are configured to determine a temperature of a component outside the one or more controllers using the first thermal sensor and the second thermal sensor by:
- determining a first temperature difference between the first thermal sensor and the second thermal sensor at a first time,
- determining a second temperature difference between the first thermal sensor and the second thermal sensor at a second time, and
- determining the temperature of the component based on the first temperature difference and the second temperature difference.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.