The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 21, 2025
Filed:
Mar. 04, 2022
Hitachi Astemo, Ltd., Hitachinaka, JP;
Yasuo Shima, Hitachinaka, JP;
Yoichiro Kobayashi, Hitachinaka, JP;
Hitachi Astemo, Ltd., Hitachinaka, JP;
Abstract
A load drive device that drives and controls an inductive load based on a PWM signal from a microcomputer is provided, and the load drive device has excellent reliability and responsiveness capable of quickly detecting disconnection of the inductive load. The load drive device includes a microcomputer and a driver circuit that drives an inductive load by a pulse width modulation signal of a constant cycle based on a control command from the microcomputer, in which the driver circuit includes a current monitoring circuit that monitors a current flowing through the inductive load, and a disconnection diagnosis circuit that detects disconnection of the inductive load based on a current value detected by the current monitoring circuit, and the disconnection diagnosis circuit obtains a change amount of a current value detected by the current monitoring circuit, and when the change amount is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, determines that the inductive load is disconnected and notifies the microcomputer of the disconnection.