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:
Sep. 16, 2008
Filed:
Nov. 12, 2003
Helge Graβhoff, Regensburg, DE;
Koutaro Machidera, Atsugi, JP;
Helge Graβhoff, Regensburg, DE;
Koutaro Machidera, Atsugi, JP;
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Munich, DE;
Abstract
The invention relates to a control unit for activating an occupant protection means in a motor vehicle and to a method for monitoring the proper functioning of a control unit preferably of this type. To this end, the control unit comprises a first and a second arithmetic unit (R, R) as well as an activating unit (AE). A number of logical AND gates (AND, AND; AND) are connected on the input side to the clock signals (clk, clk, clk) of the arithmetic units (R, R) respectively assigned thereto or to the activating unit (AE). The signal output of each logical AND gate (AND, AND; AND) is fed to a respectively assigned pulse count comparator unit (PZVE, PZVE) whose respective signal output is, in turn, connected to an input of a respectively assigned resetter (RES, RES). A resetter (RES, RES) of each arithmetic unit (R, R) always resets the respective other arithmetic unit (R, R) when the pulse count comparator unit (PZVE, PZVE) respectively assigned thereto detects an inadmissible number of pulses per unit of time in the output signal (clk, clk, clk) of the respective AND gate (AND, AND; AND).