Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Other

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Denso Corporation

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Yazaka Corporation

Hiromichi Kuno

Toshiyuki Sekimori

Naoyoshi Takamatsu

Tadafumi Yoshida

Kazuo Tojima

Satoshi Hirose

Shigemitsu Inaba

Yoshiaki Kikuchi

Toshiaki Nakanishi

Tadao Kimura

Toshiaki Hasegawa

Yasuhiro Endo

Kazutaka Tatematsu

Hiroya Tsuji

Yasushi Yamada

Masatoshi Uchida

Yutaka Komatsu

Masayoshi Iwase

Hiroshi Osada

Hiroyuki Sakakibara

Hiroo Fuma

Akio Kitami

Norifumi Furuta

Gentaro Yamanaka

Yoshiyuki Nakayama

Takeshi Yamazaki

Fumihiko Asakawa

Susumu Ukita

Yoshimi Shoji

Kazuki Fukatsu

Yozoh Ogino

Sadao Mizuno

Kouji Otsubo

Susumi Ukita

A power module includes a pair of power devices that are stacked with a plate-shaped output electrode arranged therebetween, and an N-electrode and a P-electrode that are stacked with the pair of power devices arranged therebetween. The output electrode is anisotropic such that the thermal conductivity in a direction orthogonal to the stacking direction is greater than the thermal conductivity in the stacking direction. Also, the output electrode extends in the orthogonal direction from a stacked area where the pair of power devices are stacked. The N-electrode and the P-electrode extend in the orthogonal direction while maintaining an opposing positional relationship.

Power module

A vehicle drive system comprises inverters connected electrically with a power supply line and a ground line and controlling the current flowing through each stator coil of each of first and second motor generators, and a switch making or breaking the connection between the neutral of the stator coil of first motor generator and a battery. When the first motor generator is not used but the second motor generator is used, a controller brings the switch into connection state in parallel with voltage conversion operation of a booster unit and controls the inverter to perform voltage conversion operation using the stator coil of first motor generator as a reactor.

Vehicle drive system and vehicle equipped with it

A surge voltage target setting unit obtains a main circuit power supply voltage of a semiconductor power conversion device based on an inter-terminal voltage of a semiconductor switching element detected by a voltage detection unit, and sets a control target of a surge voltage in accordance with the obtained main circuit power supply voltage. An active gate control unit, when the semiconductor switching element is turned off, sets a quantity of voltage modification so as to modify a gate voltage in a direction raising the gate voltage, that is, in a direction lowering a turn-off speed, based on feedback of the inter-terminal voltage, when the inter-terminal voltage exceeds the control target.

Semiconductor power conversion device

Provided is a driving circuit which suppresses a surge voltage at the time of switching a power semiconductor element and reduces switching loss. An element () such as an IGBT and another element () to be paired are connected, the element () is driven by a driver (), and a gate voltage is controlled by a control circuit (). When the power semiconductor element is turned off, a comparator () detects that a voltage (Vak) of the element () is a prescribed voltage, the control circuit () switches gate resistance from low resistance to high resistance to suppress the surge voltage, and the switching loss is reduced. When the power semiconductor element is turned on, start up of the voltage (Vak) is detected, and the control circuit () switches the gate resistance from high resistance to low resistance after a prescribed time to suppress the surge voltage, and the switching loss is reduced.

Driving circuit for power semiconductor element including controlling circuit that provides control when detected voltage reaches predetermined voltage

A driving gear of a vehicle comprising a motor generator (MG), a power control unit () for controlling the motor generator (MG), and a case for containing the motor generator (MG) and the power control unit (). The power control unit () comprises a first inverter for driving the motor generator (MG), and a voltage converter for applying power supply voltage to the first inverter after stepping it up. The voltage converter includes a reactor (L). Heat of the reactor (L) is dissipated using lubricant touching the reactor (L) and the case as heat transfer agent. A circulation path of lubricant is formed in the case and the reactor is arranged on the circulation path.

Vehicle driving apparatus

The present invention provides a method of replacing secondary batteries. In the method, batteries can be replaced at a low cost and performance of an overall battery assembly can be maximized after the battery replacement. The battery assembly is composed by electrically connecting a plurality of secondary batteries in series or in parallel. When a portion of the secondary batteries is judged as defective, the defective batteries are replaced by replacement batteries. In an aspect of the method, voltage is detected for every predetermined voltage detection block unit concerning secondary batteries composing the battery assembly in order to judge defects of the secondary batteries in the voltage detection block unit. Batteries in a voltage detection block unit will be replaced with replacement batteries if they are judged as defective.

Method of replacing secondary battery

In the area of the charge level of 20.about.80% where the charge level of a battery does not appear in the terminal voltage of the battery, the battery ECU estimates charge level by integrating the currents of the charge and discharge of the battery. When the engine ECU detects that the ignition key is turned on, the motor generators are driven by the engine, and the generated electric power is accumulated in the battery. When the area where the charge level appears in the terminal voltage, is reached, the calculation of the charge level is performed from the current and voltage at that time. When this charge level has reached 80%, the calibration of said estimated charge level is performed by this value. Furthermore, it is also possible for this calibration to be prohibited when a heavy current is flowing and the error may become large in the calculation of the charge level. By the above mentioned methods, the charge level of a battery can accurately be detected.

Battery charge level detecting device

To prevent excessively charging a secondary battery, which is subjected to repeated charge and discharge in a specific charged state that is lower than a full charge level, a temperature gradient of the secondary battery due to a charging process is measured, and the charged state of the secondary battery is determined to be close to the full charge level at the time point when the temperature gradient abruptly increases. The charging process is stopped based on the determination. In the case where the secondary battery is repeatedly charged and discharged, the observed temperature gradient is corrected. The correction subtracts a temperature rise due to a discharging process from the observed temperature gradient and thereby determines a temperature gradient relating to only the charging process. The correction utilizes a table that stores a relationship among the temperature rise due to the discharging process, the discharge current of the secondary battery, and the initial temperature of the secondary battery. It is also possible to determine the charged state of the secondary battery based on the temperature gradient only when the observed charge-discharge electric current shows that the secondary battery is being charged.

Charging control apparatus, method of controlling the charging process,

A battery charger and method for terminating charging at a designated time. After terminating first-stage constant-current charging by a first charging current, the charging is paused for to the designated charging termination time minus a second-stage constant-current charging duration. After the termination of the standby duration, second-stage constant-current charging is started and terminated at the charging termination time. The battery is not excessively charged but warmed up by heat generated by the battery itself at a stage close to the end of charging. When the standby duration is long, the second-stage constant-current charging duration is corrected according to the battery temperature or the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. The invention can be applied to a charging method other than the two-stage constant-current charging.

Battery charger and method for completing charging at designated time

The feeder connector consists of feeding-side and receiving-side connectors. The feeding-side connector includes a casing consisting of split-type cases fastened to each other, a connector body slidably installed in a front half section of the casing, and a handle movably mounted in a rear half section of the casing such that it advances through rotation of a lever to push the connector body against the receiving-side connector, the handle also serving as lead wires-passing tube. The lever includes a first locking means for locking the connector body in an engaged state with a mating connector body of the receiving-side connector, a second locking means operated through energizing an electro-magnetic coil, and a means for releasing the lever from the locking by the first locking means after the locking by the second locking means is released by deenergizing. The feeder connector prevents the feeding-side and receiving-side connectors from detachment during feeding in charging an electric vehicle and has a simple structure suitable for multi-polarization.

Feeder connector

Growing community of inventors

Nishikamo-gun, Japan

Hiromichi Kuno