Denso Corporation

Omron Corporation

Fujitsu Corporation

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Ibiden Company Limited

Denso Corpora Tion

Masahiro Yamamoto

Go Miyagawa

Masayuki Tamura

Akimasa Niwa

Manabu Yoshidome

Takashi Araki

Masato Katsuno

Toshihiro Sakawa

Kazuhiko Koike

Takehito Kimata

Takahiro Iwamura

Hironobu Shimokawa

Akio Nakagawa

Norihito Tokura

Takeshi Matsui

Yasutaka Ito

Shigeki Takahashi

Masami Yamaoka

Satoshi Shiraki

Tomoatsu Makino

Hideyuki Kato

Akira Yamada

Naohito Kato

Takao Mishima

Tohru Nomura

Yoshiyuki Miyase

Hirokatsu Imagawa

Youichi Ashida

Kouji Andoh

Toru Katafuchi

Tsuyoshi Moribe

Hironori Akiyama

Seiji Nishimoto

Takeshi Inoue

Yuto Tamei

Tomotaka Mouri

Hiroyasu Kudo

Tomoyoshi Nakamura

Takeshi Ushida

Akihiro Fujimoto

Kohei Shinomiya

Masaki Kishi

Hideki Yamada

Yoshiharu Kamiya

Kasuhiro Yamada

Yoshiki Ishida

Jiro Momen

A LiDAR apparatus includes a light transmitter, an optical window, and a heating wire. The light transmitter emits and sweeps light in a predetermined scanning direction. The optical window is disposed in an opening of a housing in which the light transmitter is installed and permits light beams, as outputted from the light transmitter, to pass therethrough. The heating wire works to supply heat to the optical window. The heating wire has at least one section which is located at equal intervals away from and extends parallel to two of a plurality of beam center lines which are arranged adjacent each other. Each of the beam center lines is a line extending in the scanning direction through centers of a plurality of beam transmitting regions of the optical window through which the light beams pass.

LiDAR apparatus

A ranging device is configured to emit a transmitted wave and detect a reflected wave from an object illuminated by the transmitted wave, thereby measuring a distance to the object. At least one of the transmitted wave and the reflected wave is transmitted through a transmission window. A heater is configured to heat the transmission window. A controller is configured to control energization of the heater in response to an outside temperature that is a temperature outside the ranging device and a speed of the vehicle.

Ranging device

A distance measuring device is configured to emit a transmitted wave and detect a reflected wave from an object irradiated with the transmitted wave to measure a distance to the object. At least one of the transmitted wave and the reflected wave is transmitted through a transmission window. A heater is configured to heat the transmission window from an inside of the distance measuring device. A control unit is configured to control energization of the heater according to an inside air temperature which is an air temperature inside the distance measuring device and an outside air temperature which is an air temperature outside the distance measuring device.

Distance measuring device

A distance measuring device includes a measuring unit, a controlling unit, and an accessory part. The measuring unit includes an applying unit that applies a transmission wave and a detector that detects a reflected wave resulting from the transmission wave. The controlling unit is configured to perform a measurement, by using the measuring unit, a distance to an object to which the transmission wave is applied. The accessory part is attached to the measuring unit and configured to operate when energized. The controlling unit is configured to control energization of the accessory part in accordance with a state of the measurement of the distance performed by using the measuring unit.

A signal detection circuit includes: a voltage dividing circuit having at least a first pair of voltage dividing capacitors connected in series for dividing an input voltage and configured to output a divided voltage, and a detection circuit configured to detect the divided voltage. The first pair of voltage dividing capacitors are included in one semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes: (i) a semiconductor substrate, (ii) a first conductor layer, (iii) a first dielectric layer, (iv) a second conductor layer, (v) a second dielectric layer, (vi) a third conductor layer, and (vii) a short-circuit portion configured to short-circuit the first conductor layer and the semiconductor substrate.

Signal detection circuit

A ranging apparatus is provided which is mountable to a vehicle and includes a transmitter, at least one detector, a light transmissive window, a heater, a snow accumulation condition determiner, a snowfall condition determiner, and a heater controller. The heater works to heat the transmissive window. The snow accumulation condition determiner determines a snow accumulation condition of a surface of the light transmissive window. The snowfall condition determiner determines a snowfall condition around the vehicle. The heater controller works to control energization of the heater depending upon the snow accumulation condition and the snowfall condition. The heater controller stops energizing the heater for a period of time when it is determined that there is neither the snow accumulation on the surface of the light transmissive window nor the snowfall around the vehicle.

Ranging apparatus

A particulate-matter detecting sensor including an insulating substrate which has a detecting face, detecting conductors formed in the insulating substrate, and a heating section formed on the insulating substrate. Each detecting conductor includes a detecting electrode part, a terminal part, and a connecting part. A portion of the detecting conductor is constituted of a noble metal conductor mainly formed of at least one noble metal selected from Pt, Au, Pd, Rh and Ir. At least a portion of the connecting part is formed of a low expansion conductor mainly formed of a low expansion coefficient metal having linear expansion coefficient lower than that of the noble metal. Both conductors are joined at an overlapping part at which the noble metal conductor and the low expansion conductor are partly overlapped with each other on an insulating layer forming the insulating substrate in a normal line direction of the insulating layer.

Particulate-matter detecting sensor element

A heater is provided to heat an optical window. The inner face of the optical window is partitioned by the shield plate into a first part for the phototransmitter and a second part for the photoreceiver, the first part for the phototransmitter being arranged to face the first space, the second part for the photoreceiver being arranged to face the second space. The heater includes a first film, a second film, two phototransmitter electrodes, and two photoreceiver electrodes. The first film is a transparent conductive film arranged to cover the first part for the phototransmitter. The second film is a transparent conductive film arranged to cover the second part for the photoreceiver. The two phototransmitter electrodes are configured to energize the first film. The two photoreceiver electrodes are configured to energize the second film.

Lidar device heating optical window

In a control apparatus, a heater adjuster performs a regeneration task of causing a heater to heat a sensing member of a particulate matter sensor to burn particulate matter deposited on the sensing member to thereby remove the particulate matter from the sensing member. The heater adjuster performs a deposition reduction task of maintaining, for a predetermined duration, a temperature of the sensing member at a deposition reduction temperature that reduces additional particulate-matter deposition on the sensing member. The predetermined duration is defined from completion of a regeneration task to a time when an environmental condition around the particulate matter sensor is determined to be stable. The heater adjuster stops the heater from heating the sensing member if a condition determiner determines that the environmental condition around the particulate matter sensor is stable.

Control apparatus

A gate drive circuit includes a driver for driving a gate of a switching element, a peak voltage detector, and a drive capacity calculator. The peak voltage detector detects a peak voltage at a main terminal of the switching element when the switching element is OFF. The drive capacity calculator calculates a voltage difference value between the detected peak voltage and an allowable voltage value at the main terminal of the switching element, where the allowable voltage is based on the specifications of the switching element. The drive capacity calculator changes a drive capacity of the driver to gradually decrease the difference between the detected peak voltage and the allowable voltage.

Gate drive circuit

A gate drive apparatus includes a driver, a peak voltage detector and a drive capability controller. The driver drives a gate of a first switching element as one of two switching elements respectively in an upper arm and a lower arm of a half-bridge circuit. The peak voltage detector detects a peak voltage at a second switching element in a situation where the first switching element is turned on. The drive capability controller calculates a value of drive capability when the driver turns on the first switching element, in a condition that the peak voltage at the second switching element does not exceed a tolerance value of a voltage at the second switching element according to a specification of the second switching element, and modifies the drive capability when the driver turns on the first switching element, based on a calculated result of the value of the drive capability.

Gate drive apparatus

A particulate matter detection device includes a sensor unit which has a detection unit provided with a pair of electrodes and a heater unit provided with a heater electrode and which is configured to output a signal corresponding to the amount of particulate matter, and a sensor control unit which detects the number of particles of the particulate matter. The sensor control unit has a capture control unit, a heating control unit to heat the detection unit to a first temperature at which a SOF is volatilizable and a second temperature at which soot is burnable, an output changing ratio calculation unit to calculate a ratio between a first output value at the first temperature and a second output value as the maximum output upon heating to the second temperature, and a particle number calculation unit to estimate the average particle diameter of the particulate matter from a value corrected based on the temperature of the sensor unit at the second output value to calculate the number of particles.

Particulate matter detection device

After an engine is started, an ECU performs first regeneration processing of a PM sensor through heating by a heater and, after the first regeneration processing, applies a voltage continuously to detection electrodes for a predetermined voltage application period. The ECU causes PM to adhere to an insulating substrate due to the voltage application and, at a time point after the predetermined time period has elapsed, determines the amount of PM that is adhering to the insulating substrate. When a predetermined condition is satisfied outside the voltage application period, the ECU determines whether the amount of adhering PM on the insulating substrate is equal to or greater than an excess determination threshold value. If the amount of adhering PM is determined to be equal to or greater than the excess determination threshold value, the ECU performs second regeneration processing of the PM sensor, through heating by the heater.

Sensor control apparatus

An apparatus which detects particulate matter is provided. This apparatus estimates a volume of water inside an exhaust passage using estimation sections. When an estimated volume of water is larger than a water drainage threshold, an element portion is heated using a heater by the first temperature range controller, in a temperature range which resists water-induced cracking independent of a volume of water droplets. If the estimated volume of water is less than a water drainage threshold, the water drainage determination section determines that the water drainage of the exhaust passage is completed. Additionally, if it is estimated that the water drainage is completed, the element portion is heated by a second temperature controller at temperature lower than a starting temperature of combustion of particulate matter and in order to repel water adhered onto the element portion in a water-repellent temperature range for a predetermined period.

Particulate matter detection apparatus that mitigates water collection

Growing community of inventors

Kariya, Japan

Masahiro Yamamoto