Patent application number | Description | Published |
20140117882 | H-bridge for Combined Solenoid and Piezo Injection Control - An engine system may include a specified number of individual injectors, and an engine control unit (ECU) having a specified number of pins coupling to the individual injectors. The ECU may include a controller capable of dynamically switching between different multiplexing configurations, with each multiplexing configuration coupling individual injectors across corresponding pairs of pins. Each pin may internally couple to one half of an H-bridge structure, with an injector coupled across two pins thereby completing a full H-bridge structure, providing the flexibility to achieve combined solenoid and Piezo injection control. Specifically, each pin may be internally coupled to a low-side switch and a set of high-side switches, and the switches may be operated according to the dynamically selected multiplexing configuration and the type of injection control to perform any one or more of unipolar solenoid, unipolar Piezo, bipolar solenoid, and bipolar Piezo injection control, depending on the injector type used. | 05-01-2014 |
20140118877 | Programmable Protected Input Circuits - An input protection circuit may include an input node to receive an input signal, and may further include an output node to provide a protected output signal based on the input signal. Protection circuitry may be coupled between the input node and the output node to establish a current path that bypasses the input node and pulls the output pin to a specified reference voltage level in the event of a transient at the input node. A push-pull power supply may be used to provide the reference voltage to the current path, and dissipate any excess voltage by burning it off in a semiconductor device included in the push-pull power supply circuitry. | 05-01-2014 |
20140121939 | Boost Power Supply Sequencing - A boost power supply may be constructed of a number of smaller switching power supplies, each switching power supply providing a respective portion of a combined output current provided by the boost power supply to a load. A different respective control signal may be provided to each switching power supply to regulate the respective portion of the combined output current provided by the switching power supply. Each different respective control signal may be provided to the corresponding switching power supply out of phase with respect to each other different respective control signal to prevent the combined output current from exceeding a specified threshold current value. | 05-01-2014 |
20140121945 | Direct Injection Flexible Multiplexing Scheme - An engine system may include a specified number of injectors and an engine control unit (ECU) having pins to which the injectors may be coupled. The ECU may include a controller implemented in hardware, software, or combination of both, and capable of switching between different multiplexing configurations, where each multiplexing configuration includes a specified number of individual injectors coupled across corresponding pairs of pins. The controller may select one multiplexing configuration from the number of specified multiplexing configurations without requiring any hardware adjustments to be made to the injectors and/or pins. The controller may also operate the individual injectors through the corresponding pairs of pins in an active multiplexing configuration selected by the controller. In at least one multiplexing configuration, the controller may control low-side switches at certain pins of the corresponding pairs of pins, and independent high-side switches at the remaining pins of the corresponding pairs of pins. | 05-01-2014 |
20140121946 | Direct Injection Cross Point Switching for Multiplexing Control in an Engine Control System - An engine system may include a injectors, and an engine control unit (ECU) having a number of pins coupling to the injectors. The ECU may include an individual measurement circuit coupled to each pin, with each individual measurement circuit providing a respective individual output corresponding to the pin coupled to the measurement circuit. The ECU may also include subtraction circuits, each subtraction circuit having a respective pair of inputs and providing an output representative of a difference between respective input values appearing at the pair of inputs. The ECU may also include cross-point switches coupled between the measurement circuits and the subtraction circuits, and may determine the voltage difference between any two pins by selectively coupling the respective output of each of the two individual measurement circuits coupled to the two pins to a respective input of the pair of inputs of any subtraction circuit. | 05-01-2014 |