INVERTER SYSTEM FOR ON-VEHICLE AIR CONDITIONER

• US 20100024457A1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Published: 02/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
• Inventors: Nakagami, Takashi, Adachi, Takehiro, Niwa, Kazuki, Hattori, Makoto, Nakano, Koji, Takashige, Takayuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,365,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 62/230
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00428 electric
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/3222 characterised by the compressor driving arrangements, e.g. clutches, transmissions or multiple drives B60H1/3208, B60H1/3226 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0046 relating to electric energy storage systems, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/24 for controlling the temperature of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: F25B 2600/021 Inverters therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H02P 27/06 using dc to ac converters or inverters H02P27/05 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 Electric machine technologies in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/88 Optimized components or subsystems, e.g. lighting, actively controlled glasses

Abstract

The present invention has an object to provide an on-vehicle air conditioner that can prevent breakage or the like caused by applying a high voltage. In an inverter system 20 that controls an operation of a motor 30 of a compressor for the on-vehicle air conditioner, a motor control microcomputer 24 operates by converting a voltage supplied from an on-vehicle battery power source 50 into a low voltage. Thus, the motor control microcomputer 24 is operated to perform failure diagnosis of a high voltage circuit Cb without a high voltage power source 40 being turned on. The failure diagnosis can be performed without power being supplied from the high voltage power source 40 to the high voltage circuit Cb, thereby preventing the high voltage circuit Cb from being broken by applying the high voltage even when there is some failure in the high voltage circuit Cb.

Claims

1. An inverter system for an on-vehicle air conditioner that controls an operation of a motor for driving a compressor that constitutes the on-vehicle air conditioner, comprising:

a switching element for rotationally driving said motor;

a gate circuit for driving a gate of said switching element;

a control circuit that controls a supply of a current to said gate circuit; and

a communication interface that communicates with a host control circuit that issues a command to said control circuit from outside said inverter system,

wherein said inverter system is isolated from a first power source that applies a predetermined first voltage to said motor, and receives a supply of a voltage from a second power source that applies a second voltage lower than said first voltage to said host control circuit.

2. The inverter system for an on-vehicle air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein said inverter system further comprises a temperature detection circuit that detects a temperature of said switching element when said first voltage is applied from said first power source,

said control circuit performs diagnosis of said switching element on the basis of the temperature of said switching element detected by said temperature detection circuit, and stores information indicating the diagnosis result in a diagnosis result information storage portion, and

said control circuit refers to the information indicating said diagnosis result stored in said diagnosis result information storage portion when receiving the supply of the voltage from said second power source with said first voltage being not applied from said first power source to said motor.

3. The inverter system for an on-vehicle air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein said control circuit notifies said host control circuit of the information indicating said diagnosis result stored in said diagnosis result information storage portion.

4. The inverter system for an on-vehicle air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein said inverter system further comprises a current detection circuit that detects a current flowing from said first power source to said switching element and notifies said control circuit of the detection result, and

said control circuit refers to the detected value of the current by said current detection circuit and performs a failure diagnosis processing of said current detection circuit on the basis of whether said detected value is within a predetermined range when receiving the supply of the voltage from said second power source with said first voltage being not applied from said first power source to said motor.

5. The inverter system for an on-vehicle air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein said inverter system further comprises a voltage detection circuit that detects a voltage applied from said first power source to said switching element and notifies said control circuit of the detection result, and

said control circuit refers to the detected value of the voltage by said voltage detection circuit and performs a failure diagnosis processing of said voltage detection circuit on the basis of whether said detected value is within a predetermined range when receiving the supply of the voltage from said second power source with said first voltage being not applied from said first power source to said motor.

6. The inverter system for an on-vehicle air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein said inverter system further comprises an isolated converter that converts the voltage supplied from said second power source into a third voltage different from said first voltage and said second voltage and supplies the voltage to said control circuit.

7. The inverter system for an on-vehicle air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein said communication interface performs CAN (Controller Area Network) communication.

8. The inverter system for an on-vehicle air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein said inverter system is isolated from said first power source and receives the supply of the voltage from said second power source using an isolated DC-DC converter.