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. 02, 2014
Filed:
Jun. 29, 2011
Lary R. Hocken, Davison, MI (US);
Charles S. Nelson, Fenton, MI (US);
Lary R. Hocken, Davison, MI (US);
Charles S. Nelson, Fenton, MI (US);
Delphi Technologies, Inc., Troy, MI (US);
Abstract
A diagnostic method and system is described for diagnosing an operating condition of a conductive particulate matter sensor. The sensor has a substrate with electrical resistance that varies with temperature and two electrodes on the substrate adapted to collect particulate matter between the electrodes, thereby establishing an electrically conductive path through collected particulate matter between the electrodes that can be detected by measuring electrical resistance between the electrodes, R. The diagnosis is performed by heating the substrate in the area between the electrodes and using the resistance between the electrodes to determine detecting whether contamination is present on the surface of the sensor. Heat may be maintained on the sensor to attempt to burn off a detected contaminant, and a subsequent resistance reading may be used to determine if the contaminant was successfully burned off.