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US 7,609,068 B2Granted
System and method for particulate sensor diagnostic
AssigneeDelphi Technologies, Inc.
InventorEugene V. Ripley
Life of this patent
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AssigneeDelphi Technologies, Inc.
InventorEugene V. Ripley
Estimating the term…
A particulate (soot) sensor system has a diagnostic feature for verifying the integrity of the wiring leads. The sensor system includes a sensor and processing circuitry. The sensor has a substrate, first and second sensing electrodes on the substrate and a heater electrode. The heater electrode is electrically isolated from the first and second sensing electrodes, although there is a parasitic capacitance between them. The processing circuitry includes a heater driver, a measurement circuit connected to the sensing electrodes by wire leads, and a detector. The heater driver, in addition to energizing the heater, produces a stimulus signal that is applied to the heating electrode, which is then coupled via the parasitic capacitance to the sensing electrodes. The detector is coupled to the wiring leads and is configured to detect the stimulus signal when there is electrical conductivity over the leads to the sensing electrodes.
A particulate sensor system, comprising:
A particulate sensor system having a diagnostic capability, comprising:
A method of performing a diagnostic on a particulate sensor having a pair of sensing electrodes and a heater electrode, said method comprising the step of detecting a stimulus signal applied to the heater electrode on a lead connected to one of the sensing electrodes to verify the electrical integrity of the lead.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.