Semiconductor device
AssigneeDenso Corporation
InventorHironori AKIYAMA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of switching elements electrically connected in parallel with each other, a control unit that outputs a control signal for controlling a current supplied to each of the switching elements, and a temperature estimation unit that estimates a temperature difference between the switching elements. When an estimated temperature difference becomes equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold temperature, the control unit shifts an operation mode to a stop mode for stopping driving of a switching element having a temperature higher than the other.
Claims14
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a plurality of switching elements that are electrically connected in parallel with each other;
- a control unit that is configured to output a control signal for controlling a current supplied to each of the plurality of switching elements;
- and
- a temperature estimation unit that is configured to estimate a temperature difference between the plurality of switching elements, wherein
- the control unit shifts an operation mode to a stop mode to stop driving of at least one of the plurality of switching elements, which has a temperature higher than the other, in response to the estimated temperature difference being equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold temperature.
The semiconductor device according to claim 6, wherein
- the indirect temperature detection unit detects a temperature of a heat sink reflecting the temperature of each of the plurality of switching elements, and
- the estimation unit estimates the temperature difference based on the temperature of the heat sink.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.