Denso Corporation

Mitsuru Aoki

Yasuhiko Harada

Hiroshi Imai

Hiroyuki Ban

Daichi Marui

Kenta Imamiya

A gas concentration detection device includes: a gas concentration sensor having a gas sensor element that outputs an electric signal according to a gas concentration and a heater that heats the gas sensor element; a heater controller controlling energization and de-energization of the heater; a sensor controller having an ADC AD-converting the electric signal from an analog signal to a digital signal in synchronization with a sampling clock (fs) and detecting the gas concentration based on an output signal of the AD converter; and a timing adjuster shifting a switching timing of energization control from a conversion timing at which the AD converter performs the AD conversion.

Gas concentration detection device

A bipolar stepper motor driving device drives a stepper motor including stator coils having plural phases. The bipolar stepper motor driving device includes H-bridge circuits, a current detector, a control circuit, and a re-turning-on instruction unit. The H-bridge circuits are provided correspondingly to the phases of the respective stator coils. The current detector detects current flowing in the stator coils. The control circuit executes drive control of the H-bridge circuits. The re-turning-on instruction unit commands the control circuit to switch into a short-circuited state a stator coil which has shifted from an energized state to an off-state among the stator coils, on a condition that an absolute value of a reverse current detected by the current detector has changed from a value larger than a threshold current value to a value smaller than the threshold current value.

Bipolar stepper motor driving device

In an inductive load control device, an energization controller controls an operation of an H-bridge circuit to switch from an energized state to a regenerative state when a load current value is equal to or greater than a first threshold value at a time after a mask time has elapsed from a start time of a reference cycle, and a short-circuit determination processor determines whether the short-circuit abnormality has occurred based on whether the load current value is equal to or greater than a second threshold value greater than the first threshold value. The short-circuit determination processor further determines whether the short-circuit abnormality has occurred based on the regenerative current value in the regenerative state when the load current value does not reach the second threshold value within the mask time.

Inductive load control device

An electronic control unit includes a computer that outputs a monitoring signal and an external monitoring circuit that monitors a state of the computer based on the monitoring signal. The computer includes a monitoring signal output section that generates and outputs the monitoring signal to the external monitoring circuit by performing a software process; a self-diagnostic section that self-diagnoses the computer and detects an abnormality by identifying a cause of the abnormality; and a break signal output section that outputs a break signal to interrupt an input of the monitoring signal to the external monitoring circuit by performing a hardware process when an abnormality in the monitoring signal output section is detected.

Electronic control unit including a break-output section configured to output a break signal to interrupt an input of a monitoring signal to an external monitoring circuit

A load driving apparatus supplies an electric power to a load via a full-bridge circuit. The load driving apparatus detects a load current by a current sensing resistor. A controller in the load driving apparatus generates a drive signal by switching between a first reference circuit outputting a first reference signal with a first reference cycle and a second reference signal outputting a second reference signal with a second reference cycle. A calculator in the load driving apparatus is used to supply a drive signal to the full-bridge circuit for supplying power to the load. When the controllerdetects that the value of the load current is not reaching predetermined current threshold values, within either of the first reference cycle or the second reference cycle due to temperature fluctuations, the controller switches to either the first reference circuit or the second reference circuit to stabilize the value of the load current around an average value.

Load driving apparatus

An electronic control unit includes a microcomputer, a power supply IC and a peripheral circuit part. The microcomputer includes a core operable with a first power supply voltage and an input/output circuit operable with a second power supply voltage higher than the first power supply voltage. The power supply IC generates the first power supply voltage and the second power supply voltage. The peripheral circuit part has a first input terminal for the first power supply voltage, a second input terminal for the second power supply voltage, and an internal circuit operable with a potential between the first power supply voltage and the second power supply voltage. A core input terminal for the first power supply voltage, a first output terminal for the first power supply voltage in the power supply IC and the first input terminal are electrically connected one another.

Electronic control unit having multiple power supply routes for microcomputer core

An ECU having a microcomputer for controlling a control object includes: a detection device that detects an anomalous operation of the microcomputer; a first reset device that outputs a reset signal for the microcomputer when the detection device detects the anomalous operation; a failsafe control device that executes a failsafe control operation for controlling the control object to be safer than the control object before resetting the microcomputer when the microcomputer is reset to a normal state; a counting device that counts a number of times of occurrence of the anomalous operation when the detection device detects the anomalous operation again after the failsafe control device starts to execute the failsafe control operation; and a second reset device that outputs the reset signal and holds an output of the reset signal when the number of times of occurrence reaches a predetermined number of times.

Electronic control unit

In an operational amplifier, a differential amplifying circuit is configured to amplify an input voltage inputted from the input terminal. An outputting transistor is connected to the output terminal. A driving transistor is connected to the differential amplifying circuit and the outputting transistor. The driving transistor turns on according to a control signal supplied from the differential amplifying circuit to the driving circuit. The driving transistor is also configured to drive the outputting transistor according to the control signal. A control signal reducing circuit, when a voltage is applied on the driving transistor through the outputting transistor, is configured to reduce the control signal within a range that the driving transistor is kept to on state. The voltage applied on the driving transistor exceeds a predetermined threshold voltage.

Operational amplifier

In an operational amplifying circuit, the first transistor is configured to turn on and off according to an output signal outputted from the operational amplifier through the output terminal thereof. The second transistor is connected to the first transistor in series and configured to turn off and on reversely with the on and off operation of the first transistor on the output signal from the operational amplifier. The current control unit is electrically connected to the first and second transistors and configured to detect a current flowing in one of the first and second transistors. The current control circuit is configured to cause a current to flow into the control terminal of the one of the first and second transistors and to make other of the first and second transistors turn off.

Growing community of inventors

Kariya, Japan

Mitsuru Aoki