Nsk Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation

Shin Kumagai

Kyosho Uryu

Nobuhiko Ando

Shigeru Fukinuki

Takayuki Kobayashi

Dai Suzuki

Hidetaka Nakamura

Sari Maekawa

Shigeru Shimakawa

Teruyoshi Kogure

Ryoichi Suzuki

Shuji Endo

Takahiro Yamazaki

Ikunori Sakatani

Yusuke Kikuchi

Noboru Kaneko

Kenichi Okamoto

Yousuke Imamura

Tomoyuki Yanagisawa

Masashi Ueno

Minoru Awazu

Takaaki Sekine

Masakazu Morimoto

Katsutoshi Matsuoka

Keiji Kashimoto

Naoto Shinkawa

Yusuke Ota

Yasuhiro Iwasaki

Masayuki Aoki

A rotation angle detection device including: an angular position calculation unit configured to calculate angular position information representing an angular position of the motor rotation shaft based on a first sensor signal of the first sensor; a rotation number detection unit configured to detect a rotation number of the motor rotation shaft based on a second sensor signal of a second sensor and output rotation number information representing the rotation number; a rotation angle calculation unit configured to calculate rotation angle information indicating a rotation angle of the motor rotation shaft based on the angular position information and the rotation number information; and a power supply unit configured to stop supplying power to the first sensor, the angular position calculation unit and the rotation angle calculation unit and to supply power to the second sensor and the rotation number detection unit when the power switch is off.

Rotation angle detection device and electric power steering device

The power management unit supplies first power that is continuous power to the second sensor when the power switch is on, supplies second power that is intermittent power having a voltage lower than the first power to the second sensor when the power switch is off, and outputs rotation number information representing a rotation number of the motor rotation shaft based on the second sensor signal. The power management unit includes a comparator that operates using the second power as the power source when the power switch is off and compare the second sensor signal and the reference voltage, and a counter that detects the rotation number of the motor rotation shaft by counting the output of the comparators.

Rotation angle detection device, electric power steering device and method of controlling electric power steering device

The power control unit sets a drive interval for driving the sensor by providing power intermittently to the sensor to a first time interval when no change is detected in the sine-wave signal and the cosine-wave signal, sets to the second time interval that is shorter than the first time interval when a change in only one of the sine-wave signal and the cosine-wave signal is detected, and sets to the third time interval that is shorter than the second time interval when a change in one of the sine-wave signal and the cosine-wave signal is detected and then a change in the other is detected.

A motor control unit that is connected to a motor release switch which includes FETs and is disposed between an inverter and a motor, including: a control section to detect an assist state of the inverter, to turn-ON or turn-OFF a control of the inverter based on a detection result and to detect whether abnormality is existed or not; a motor rotational speed detecting section to detect a motor rotational speed; an energy calculating section to calculate an energy based on the motor rotational speed; a judging section to turn-OFF all of the FETs of the motor release switch when the energy is within an area of safety operation; and a state detecting section to detect whether abnormality is existed or not based on information from an abnormality detecting section that detects abnormality of the sensors and the inverter, wherein the control section turns-ON the control of the inverter when the state detecting section does not detect abnormality and turns-OFF the control of the inverter when the state detecting section detects abnormality.

Motor control unit and electric power steering apparatus equipped with the same

An electronic control unit diagnoses a short failure of an inverter FETs and diagnoses whether the failure of the FET-short detecting section has occurred. The unit controls a motor through an inverter including a bridge having an upper-stage FETs and a lower-stage FETs via an MCU, having: an FET-short detecting section to detect a short failure of the upper-stage FETs and the lower-stage FETs based on respective connection point voltages of the upper-stage FETs and the lower-stage FETs; and a diagnostic function to detect a failure of the FET-short detecting section. The diagnostic function diagnoses the failure of the FET-short detecting section at start up and turns-OFF the upper-stage FETs and the lower-stage FETs when the failure is detected. The FET-short detecting section diagnoses the short failure of the upper-stage FETs and the lower-stage FETs when the failure of the FET-short detecting section is not detected.

Electronic control unit and electric power steering apparatus equipped with the same

[Problem] An object of the present invention is to provide a motor control unit that driving-controls a motor having the dual-system windings, even in a case that one driving control system is an abnormality (including a failure), turns-ON of one common reverse-connection protection-FET by a driving signal of the other normal driving control system, and achieves a miniaturization and a reduction in costs, an electric power steering apparatus that is equipped with the motor control unit, and a vehicle. [Means for Solving the Problem] The present invention is the motor control unit, comprising: an MCU to control the motor having dual-system motor windings, dual-system inverters to drive the respective dual-system motor windings via dual-system driving sections, and one reverse-connection protection-FET that is connected between the dual-system inverters and a power supply, wherein the reverse-connection protection-FET is turned-ON or turned-OFF by a logical sum of gate driving signals from the dual-system gate driving sections.

Motor control unit, electric power steering apparatus equipped with the same, and vehicle

An electronic control unit where an external watch dog timer (WDT) can always normally detect an abnormality (a failure) to a micro controller unit (MCU) related to a built-in self-test (BIST) function and which can maintain safety of a system. The control unit includes an external WDT to detect an abnormality of the MCU, a reset circuit to reset the MCU when the external WDT detects the abnormality of the MCU, and an ON/OFF control section to turn a gate of the semiconductor switching device on or off in accordance with the external WDT. The inverter is stopped by turning the gate off via the ON/OFF control section when the external WDT is a disable state. When the abnormality of the MCU is not detected in an enable state, the inverter is driven by turning the gate on via the ON/OFF control section. When the abnormality of the MCU is detected, the inverter is stopped by turning the gate off via the ON/OFF control section and the MCU is reset by the reset circuit.

An electric power steering apparatus that drive-controls a motor by an inverter, and a motor release-switch is connected between the inverter and the motor, comprising: a control section to detect an assist state on a driving control system and to ON/OFF-switch a control of the inverter based on a detection result; a motor rotational number detecting section to detect a rotational number of the motor; an energy calculating section to calculate an energy of a motor back-EMF and a regenerative current based on the rotational number; and a judging section to compare the energy with an area of safety operation of the motor release-switch and to OFF-switch the d motor release-switch when the energy becomes within the area of safety operation. As occasion demands, the area of safety operation is calculated with the temperature.

Motor control apparatus and electric power steering apparatus provided the same

A substrate provided in proximity to a case for improving heat radiation, and maintaining electrical insulation between the substrate and the case even when the substrate is warped, in the substrate having electronic parts mounted thereon and a case for housing the substrate. A case body of the case has a substrate placement surface for placing the substrate, the substrate placement surface is provided with a protruding portion protruding therefrom, and the substrate is fixed on the substrate placement surface, via a thermal interface material disposed on the substrate placement surface from a periphery of the protruding portion.

Structure of substrate having electronic parts mounted thereon and case for housing the substrate

A power-source voltage diagnostic device of an electric power steering apparatus that improves the performance for the anomalous detection of the motor power-source voltage VR-detecting circuit and is capable of continuing the assist control even if the extraordinary state is detected. When the failure (extraordinary state) detection of the VR-detecting circuit is performed by using the correlation between Vbat-voltage obtained by the detecting section (Vbat-detecting circuit) to detect the control voltage from the control power-source circuit and VR-voltage obtained by the detecting circuit (VR-detecting circuit) to detect the motor power-source voltage from the power source circuit, multiplexing is performed by providing VR-detecting circuits (VR-detecting circuit, VR-detecting circuit) of two systems and mutually comparing them so as to accurately perform the failure diagnosis of the VR-detecting circuits.

Power-source voltage diagnostic device of electric power steering apparatus

An electric power steering apparatus that calculates a current command value based on at least a steering torque, performs a PWM-control of a brushless motor by an inverter based on the current command value, performs a current control by detecting a rotational angle of the brushless motor, and performs an assist-control of a steering system. The apparatus includes three rotational angle detecting systems to detect three rotational angles of the brushless motor; and an angle diagnosing section that compares absolute values of differences on respective angles outputted from the three rotational angle detecting systems with a threshold, and performs a process by diagnosing whether the rotational angle detecting systems are normal or abnormal; wherein the assist control is continuously performed by using output angles outputted from systems diagnosed as being normal.

Electric power steering apparatus

An inverter device includes a switch circuit configured by series-connecting two N-channel semiconductor switching elements in opposite directions so that the switch circuit makes or breaks electrical connection between a DC power supply and an inverter circuit, and a control circuit carrying out a protecting operation in which when the control circuit outputs a control signal to control switching of the inverter circuit and an operating condition is met, the control circuit stops output of the control signal to turn off all switching elements configuring the inverter circuit and the switch circuit. In the protecting operation, the switch circuit is turned off after output of the control signal has been stopped so that changes in drain-source voltages and drain currents of the N-channel semiconductor switching elements are rendered slower.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Shin Kumagai