Electronic control module with driver banks for engines

A method for controlling fuel combustion in an engine using an engine controller module (ECM), the method comprising:

• providing, in the ECM, a plurality of driver banks each including two low side driver circuits and a high side driver circuit, and each driver bank being coupled to two combustion control elements of the engine;
• providing a field programmable gate array (FPGA) coupled to the plurality of driver banks;
• and
• providing a plurality of firing signals simultaneously from the FPGA to at least twelve high side driver circuits to simultaneously drive twenty four combustion control elements respectively coupled to the at least twelve high side driver circuits to control fuel combustion in the engine, each said twenty four combustion control elements being enabled by the respective low side driver circuits coupled to each of the twenty four combustion control elements.

An engine control module (ECM) comprising:

• a plurality of driver banks configured to drive a plurality of combustion control elements, each of the plurality of driver banks including two low side driver circuits and a high side driver circuit, the high side driver circuit in each of the plurality of driver banks being shared pairwise by two combustion control elements in the plurality of combustion control elements, and each one of said at least two low side driver circuits being respectively associated with the two combustion control elements;
• and
• a programmable logic device (PLD) coupled to the plurality of driver banks and configured to provide firing signals to at least twelve high side driver circuits to simultaneously drive at least twelve combustion control elements respectively coupled to the at least twelve high side driver circuits, said at least twelve combustion control elements being enabled by the respective low side driver circuits coupled to each of the at least twelve combustion control elements, wherein the plurality of combustion control elements comprise at least one of the following:
• an injector and an ignition coil.