Firing circuit for a vehicle passenger restraint system

Abstract

A firing circuit for deploying a pair of air bags comprises two circuit legs connected in parallel across a voltage supply. Each circuit leg comprises in series a safing sensor, a squib, and a crash sensor, with each sensor being shunted by a like resistor having a nominal resistance substantially greater than the nominal resistance of the squibs. Two separate diode bridges, each comprising a pair of oppositely biased diodes, bridge the circuit legs at junctions thereon between the safing sensors and the squibs, and the squibs and the crash sensors, respectively, to provide multiple firing paths for both squibs. A microprocessor checks the integrity of the firing circuit and diagnoses the presence of faults therein by reading the voltage potentials at each junction; comparing the voltage potential at one or more junctions with the supply voltage; comparing the voltage drop across the diode bridges with the diode forward-biased conduction voltages; and, if a specific fault has not yet been identified, determining the effect on the voltage potential at one or more junctions when increasing the supply voltage applied across the firing circuit. The microprocessor periodically determines the instantaneous forward-biased conduction voltages of the bridging diodes for use in the above diagnostic sequence by operating a current switch connected to a junction on each circuit leg and determining the resulting voltage drops across the diode bridges.