Infineon Technologies Ag

Benjamin Kollmitzer

Mario Motz

Wolfgang Granig

Stephan Leisenheimer

Christof Michenthaler

Richard Heinz

Dirk Hammerschmidt

Christoph Steiner

Bernhard Schaffer

Peter Slama

Thomas Hafner

Andrea Possemato

Udo Hafner

Constantin Stroi

Alexander Plautz

Udo Ausserlechner

Friedrich Rasbornig

Franz Michael Darrer

Armin Satz

Gernot Binder

Marcus Edward Hennecke

Philipp Greiner

Christof Bodner

Walter Schuchter

Michael Ortner

Filippo Grillotti

Manuel Gillinger

Thomas Ganner

Methods and apparatuses for comparing redundant signals in functional safe systems are provided, including methods for mitigating differing signal path delays and for signal weighting of the redundant signals are proposed. An Apparatus includes a first signal path for a first measurement signal of a physical quantity, the first signal path having a first signal propagation delay; a second signal path for a second measurement signal of the physical quantity, the second signal path having a second signal propagation delay different from the first signal propagation delay; a delay compensation circuit configured to compensate for a difference between the first and second signal propagation delays to generate delay-compensated first and second measurement signals; and comparison circuitry configured to compare the delay-compensated first and second measurement signals.

Apparatuses and methods for comparing redundant signals in functional safe systems

In some implementations, a sensor may determine a delay latency value associated with an amount of time from completion of a set of sensor tasks to an actual time of reception of a trigger to selectively transmit or sample sensor data. The sensor may calculate a deviation of the delay latency value from a target delay latency. The sensor may transmit a data frame including an indication associated with the deviation of the delay latency value from the target delay latency.

Adaptation to a pulse width modulation frequency variation for a sensor operating in a synchronous mode

An exemplary embodiment of a sensor system includes a magnet system which is designed to generate a magnetic field. Furthermore, the sensor system includes a first magnetic field sensor which is movable in a first direction relative to the magnet system and has a first distance from the magnet system in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The sensor system also includes a second magnetic field sensor which is movable in the first direction relative to the magnet system and has a second distance from the magnet system in the second direction, the second distance being greater than the first distance.

Sensor systems, method for determining a position of a magnet system, an operating unit, and a computer program

A Hall sensor is disclosed. The Hall sensor comprises a first Hall element, configured to detect a component of a magnetic field in a first direction a using a sensitive area of the first Hall element. The Hall sensor further comprises a second Hall element, configured to detect a component of the magnetic field in a second direction b using a sensitive area of the second Hall element. The Hall sensor further comprises a conductor track, configured to generate a calibration magnetic field. The calibration magnetic field has a significant component on the sensitive area of the first Hall element in the second direction b. The calibration magnetic field further has a significant component on the sensitive area of the second Hall element in the first direction a.

Hall sensor, method for calibrating a hall sensor, and calibration apparatus for a hall sensor

A magnetic-field-based angle sensor system includes a stator component and a rotor component rotatable relative thereto, a magnetic field sensor operating in saturation operation and a magnetic field sensor operating in linear operation, wherein the magnetic field sensor operating in saturation operation is configured to determine a rotation angle of the rotor component relative to the stator component, and wherein the magnetic field sensor operating in linear operation is configured to ascertain an external magnetic stray field acting on the angle sensor system. The angle sensor system further includes a control device configured, based on the ascertained external magnetic stray field, to compensate for a stray-field-dependent measurement deviation in the determination of the rotation angle carried out.

Magnetic-field-based angle sensor system with stray field compensation and method for stray field compensation

An angle sensor may include a first angle measurement path to determine an angular position based on sensor values from a first set of sensing elements. The angle sensor may include a second angle measurement path to determine the angular position based on sensor values from a second set of sensing elements. A type of the second set of sensing elements is different from a type of the first set of sensing elements. The angle sensor may include a safety path to perform a set of safety checks, the set of safety checks including a first vector length check associated with the first angle measurement path and a second vector length check associated with the second angle measurement path. The angle sensor may include an output component to provide an indication of a result of the set of safety checks.

Angle sensor with diverse measurement paths and a safety path

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for ascertaining a rotation angle of a magnetic field orientation-influencing test object with an axis of rotation in the z-direction. The apparatus may include at least three first magnetic field sensor elements, which are sensitive to magnetic field components in the z-direction. The apparatus may include at least three second magnetic field sensor elements, which are sensitive to magnetic field components in an xy-plane. The apparatus may include a device for ascertaining the rotation angle on the basis of a first combination signal which is based on multiple combinations of measurement signals from the first magnetic field sensor elements and the second magnetic field sensor elements.

Apparatus and method for ascertaining a rotation angle

A device may determine a sensor identifier corresponding to a sensor integrated circuit (IC) associated with a sensor system. The device may provide the sensor identifier corresponding to the sensor IC. The device may receive, based on providing the sensor identifier, compensation parameter information associated with the sensor IC. The device may cause a set of compensation parameters, associated with the compensation parameter information, to be stored on a controller associated with the sensor system. The set of compensation parameters may include one or more parameters associated with correcting a measurement performed by the sensor IC or a safety result provided by the sensor IC.

Providing compensation parameters for sensor integrated circuits

The concept described herein relates to a device and a method for determining the transfer function of an angle sensor in the course of operation. For this purpose, a sequence of angle output signals of the angle sensor is received during at least one time interval in which the angle sensor is exposed to a rotating magnetic field. Furthermore, the transfer function of the angle sensor is determined on the basis of the sequence of angle output signals. The method can be carried out during regular operation of the angle sensor.

Device and method for determining the transfer function of an angle sensor

The described techniques address deadlocking issues associated with interconnected hardware devices that share bus lines associated with a digital communication interface. A watchdog-based solution is described that may be implemented internally within the interconnected hardware devices or, alternatively, as an external component. The watchdog circuity may monitor a logic state of one or more internal connections of a hardware device and cause one or more portions of the hardware device to reset when a deadlock condition is detected using this internal monitoring.

Watchdog for addressing deadlocked states

An autocalibration method includes generating at least one sensor signal in response to measuring a physical quantity; compensating the at least one sensor signal based on at least one compensation parameter to generate at least one compensated sensor signal; generating the at least one compensation parameter based on the at least one sensor signal or the at least one compensated sensor signal; comparing each of the at least one compensation parameter to a respective tolerance range; on a condition that each of the at least one compensation parameter is within its respective tolerance range, transmitting the at least one compensation parameter as at least one validated compensation parameter to be used for compensating the at least one sensor signal; and on a condition that at least one of the at least one compensation parameter is not within its respective tolerance range, generating a fault detection signal.

Safety mechanism monitoring of autocalibrated compensation parameters

An integrated Hall sensor device for measuring a magnetic field is provided. The integrated Hall sensor device includes: a semiconductor chip; a first Hall sensor for generating a first magnetic field measurement signal dependent on a first component; a second Hall sensor for generating a second magnetic field measurement signal dependent on a second component of the magnetic field; a first stress sensor for generating a shear stress measurement signal dependent on mechanical stresses in the semiconductor chip; and an evaluation device for determining one or more properties of the magnetic field depending on the first magnetic field measurement signal, the second magnetic field measurement signal. and the first shear stress measurement signal.

Integrated hall sensor device and method for measuring a magnetic field by means of an integrated hall sensor device

The described techniques address the issues associated with conventional OoS sensor systems by mounting a magnetized ring onto a rotatable shaft for which an angular position is to be measured. Specific sensor configurations are disclosed regarding each magnetic sensor's position with respect to one another and each magnetic sensor's position with respect to the rotatable shaft. The described configurations provide a stray-field robust solution due to the specific magnetic sensor configurations such that, when stray fields are present, pairs of magnetic sensors are exposed to essentially the same stray field components, which thus cancel one another. Thus, the angle of the rotatable shaft as a function of the measured strength of the magnetic field components at any time instant can be calculated even in the present of stray magnetic fields.

Stray field robust out of shaft angle sensor and measurement system

Disclosed is an apparatus which has, among other things, a MEMS device with a first measurement arrangement for capturing a measurement variable (X) based on a physical variable, which has a useful variable component (N) and a first disturbance variable component (Z), and a second measurement arrangement for capturing a second disturbance variable component (Z). The apparatus furthermore has a disturbance compensation circuit which is configured to combine the second disturbance variable component (Z) and the measurement variable (X) with one another and to obtain a disturbance-compensated measurement variable (X). The MEMS device is arranged in a housing, wherein the MEMS device is in immediate mechanical contact with the housing by way of at least 50% of a MEMS device surface.

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Graz, Austria

Benjamin Kollmitzer