Motor controller

• US 20050071090A1
• Filed: 03/12/2003
• Published: 03/31/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Katou, Masanori
• Granted Patent: US 7,023,172 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/34
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/327 against abnormal temperatures
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/48 using discharge tubes with control electrode or semiconductor devices with control electrode
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/0826 in bipolar transistor switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2017/0806 against excessive temperature

Abstract

An electric motor control apparatus of this invention estimates changes in temperature of a semiconductor device to compute temperature change amplitude 108 based on an output current signal 105 computed from a current flowing through the semiconductor device of a switching circuit 5, an operating frequency signal and a carrier frequency signal by a temperature change estimation part 11, and makes conversion into the number of power cycles 110 corresponding to the temperature change amplitude 108 from power cycle curve data stored in a power cycle curve data storage part 14 and computes a thermal stress signal 111 by a thermal stress computation part 13, and does life estimation of the semiconductor device based on the thermal stress signal 111 and produces an output to a display part 16 as a life estimation result signal 112 by a life estimation part 15a.

Claims

1. An electric motor control apparatus for converting DC electric power into AC electric power of a variable frequency and a variable voltage and performing variable control of an electric motor acting as a load, comprising:

a switching circuit having a semiconductor device such as a power transistor and a diode connected in parallel with this power transistor,

a control part for generating a driving pulse based on an operating frequency signal set by an operating frequency setting part and a carrier frequency signal set by a carrier frequency setting part, and

a driving circuit for amplifying the driving pulse outputted from this control part and performing on-off control of the power transistor of the switching circuit, the electric motor control apparatus characterized by comprising;

a current computation part for computing an output current from a current flowing through the semiconductor device and also outputting a current breaking signal to the control part when an output current signal computed exceeds a current limit value signal outputted from a current limit level adjusting part,

a temperature change estimation part for estimating changes in temperature of the semiconductor device to compute temperature change amplitude based on this output current signal, the operating frequency signal and the carrier frequency signal,

a power cycle curve data storage part for storing power cycle curve data showing a relation between the temperature change amplitude and a power cycle life of the semiconductor device,

a thermal stress computation part for converting the temperature change amplitude computed by the temperature change estimation part into the number of power cycles used as the power cycle life of the semiconductor device by the power cycle curve data and computing a thermal stress signal, and

a life estimation part for doing life estimation of the semiconductor device based on this thermal stress signal and producing an output to a display part as a life estimation result signal and further calculating life time per set time and comparing the life time with an expected life and outputting an alarm to the display part as a life determination signal when the life time is shorter than the expected life.

2. An electric motor control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that it is constructed so that the life estimation part outputs the life estimation result signal and the life determination signal to the current limit level adjusting part and also the current limit level adjusting part makes an automatic adjustment so as to decrease a current limit value signal outputted to the current computation part when alarm information is included in the life estimation result signal or the life determination signal is inputted.

3. An electric motor control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that it is constructed so that the life estimation part outputs the life estimation result signal and the life determination signal to the carrier frequency setting part and also the carrier frequency setting part makes an automatic adjustment so as to lower an upper limit value of the carrier frequency and outputs a carrier frequency signal to the control part when alarm information is included in the life estimation result signal or the life determination signal is inputted.