Delphi Automotive Systems Luxembourg S.a.

Delphi Technologies, Inc.

Peter Weyand

Frank Lorenz

Marco Loenarz

Sami Ruotsalainen

Klaus Gernert

Lorenz Frank

An ignition system including a spark plug control unit adapted to control at least two coil stages to provide a current to a spark plug, including two stages including a first transformer including a first primary winding inductively coupled to a first secondary winding; a second transformer including a second primary winding inductively coupled to a second secondary winding; the control unit enabled to simultaneously switch on and off two corresponding switches to maintain a continuous ignition fire, and includes a step-down converter stage with a switch and a diode. The method includes i) switching off the switch; and ii) toggling the two corresponding switches.

Method and apparatus to control an ignition system

A multi-charge ignition system including a spark plug control unit adapted to control at least two coil stages so as to successively energise and de-energise the coil stages to provide a current to a spark plug, the two stages including a first transformer including a first primary winding inductively coupled to a first secondary winding a second transformer including a second primary winding inductively coupled to a second secondary winding. A first switch is located between the high end side of the first primary winding and the high end side of the second primary winding, and a second switch is located between the low side of the first primary winding and high side of the second primary winding.

A multi-charge ignition system includes a spark plug control unit adapted to control at least two coil stages so as to successively energise and de-energise the coil stages to provide a current to a spark plug. The two stages include a first transformer including a first primary winding inductively coupled to a first secondary winding; a second transformer including a second primary winding inductively coupled to a second secondary winding. An auxiliary primary winding is connected from the common high side of the primary winding in series to an auxiliary secondary winding, the other end of said auxiliary secondary winding is electrically connected to ground/low side, and includes a switch which selectively allows current to pass through the auxiliary windings.

A method is provided for controlling an ignition system which includes a spark plug control unit adapted to control at least one coil stage, the at least one coil stage adapted to successively energize and de-energize to provide a current to a spark plug, each coil stage includes a primary winding inductively coupled to a secondary winding. The method includes measuring low side voltages at one or more of each coil stage and controlling a duty cycle or a pulse width of a PWM-signal of a step-down converter stage dependent on a battery voltage, a maximum primary current threshold, and the measured voltages.

With an ignition coil module comprising a coil system which includes a primary winding and a secondary winding and a flux conducting, soft magnetic device to increase and/or to conduct a magnetic flux generated by one of the windings and comprising an electronic component to control the coil system which has an electrical circuit and a heat sink to cool the electronic component, at least one section of the heat sink is connected to a section of the flux conducting device in a thermally conductive manner such that waste heat of the electronic component can be dissipated over the section of the flux conducting device.

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Bertrange, Luxembourg

Peter Weyand