Onboard device and method for analyzing fluid in a heat engine

• US 9,562,850 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2013
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SP3H
• Original Assignee: SP3H
• Inventors: Oberti, Sylvain, Fournel, Johan
• Primary Examiner(s): Geisel, Kara E
• Assistant Examiner(s): DECENZO, SHAWN H
• Application Number:
  US14/648,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20150346085A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/3181 using LEDs
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/274 Calibration, base line adjustment, drift correction
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/3504 for analysing gases, e.g. multi-gas analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/3577 for analysing liquids, e.g. polluted water
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/062 LED's
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/0624 Compensating variation in output of LED source
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/121 Correction signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/1211 for temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/124 Sensitivity
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/1242 Validating, e.g. range invalidation, suspending operation
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/1247 Thresholding
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/127 Calibration; base line adjustment; drift compensation
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/12723 Self check capacity; automatic, periodic step of checking

Abstract

A method for controlling a spectrometer for analyzing a product includes steps of: acquiring a measurement representative of the operation of a light source, determining, depending on the measurement, a value of supply current of the light source, and/or a value of integration time of light-sensitive cells of a sensor, disposed on a route of a light beam emitted by the light source and having interacted with a product to be analyzed, and if the integration time and/or supply current value is between threshold values, supplying the light source with a supply current corresponding to the determined supply current value, adjusting the integration time of a light-sensitive cell to the determined integration time value, and acquiring light intensity measurements supplied by the sensor, enabling a spectrum to be formed.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a spectrometer for analyzing a product, comprising:

sending a light beam from a light source of the spectrometer,

transmitting the light beam to a product to be analyzed with which it interacts, and

acquiring light intensity measurements enabling a spectrum to be formed, by means of a sensor of the spectrometer, disposed on a route of the light beam after it has interacted with the product to be analyzed,

the acquisition of light intensity measurements comprising;

acquiring in the presence of the product to be analyzed measurements representative of the operation of the light source and independent of the product to be analyzed, the operation measurements comprising a measure of a temperature of the light source, and

determining, depending on the operation measurements, a value of integration time of light-sensitive cells of the sensor, and when the integration time value is between threshold values, adjusting the integration time of the light-sensitive cells to the determined integration time value

determining, depending on the operation measurements, a value of supply current of the light source, and when the supply current value is within an ideal operating range, supplying the light source with a supply current corresponding to the determined supply current value

comparing the integration time value to threshold values; and

when the integration time value is not within the threshold values, adjusting a new value of the supply current of the light source such that the integration time value is within the threshold values, and when the supply current value is within the ideal operating range, supplying a supply current corresponding to the determined supply current value to the light source.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the measurements representative of the operation of the light source comprise at least one of:

a measurement of light intensity directly produced by the light source,

a measurement of the light source supply current intensity, and

a measurement of a light source supply voltage.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising a self-diagnosis test comprising at least one of the following comparisons:

comparisons to determine whether the measurements representative of the operation of the light source are consistent with each other, and

comparisons of supply current values supplied to the light source with minimum and maximum values, and when one of the comparisons reveals a defect, the spectrometer is switched to a degraded or default operating mode.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising correcting the light intensity measurements taking account of a difference of a reference temperature with the temperature of the product to be analyzed and/or with the temperature of the sensor, so as to obtain corrected light intensity measurements resulting from measurements taken at the reference temperature, the corrected measurements forming a corrected spectrum.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the light source comprises several light-emitting diodes having distinct spectra covering an analysis wavelength band, the method comprising for each light-emitting diode:

switching on the light-emitting diode,

obtaining a corrected spectrum for the switched-on light-emitting diode, and

adding the corrected spectra obtained while applying weighting factors, to a resulting spectrum.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising averaging several resulting spectra, the number of averaged spectra being increased when an operating mode of the spectrometer switches from a normal to a degraded state.

7. The method of claim 1, including a calibration of the spectrometer, comprising:

determining minimum and maximum match values for matching measurements of light intensity directly produced by the light source with supply current setpoint values of the light source and/or with the temperature of the light source, and/or

determining minimum and maximum supply current setpoint values of the light source, and/or

determining minimum and maximum values of integration time of the light-sensitive cells of the sensor, and/or

determining, in the presence of one or more reference products, a function supplying an optimal integration time of a light-sensitive cell of the sensor according to a light intensity produced by the light source, and/or

varying independently, in the presence of one or more reference products, the temperature of the light source and/or the temperature of the sensor and/or the temperature of the reference product, collecting light intensity measurements supplied by the sensor, the supply current setpoint values of the light source, the integration times of the sensor, and temperature measurements, and determining a function supplying a corrected light intensity measurement corresponding to a reference temperature, according to the measurements collected.

8. A spectrometer comprising a light source emitting a light beam, a sensor comprising light-sensitive cells disposed on a route of the light beam after it has interacted with a product to be analyzed, and a control device controlling a supply current of the light source, and an integration time of the light-sensitive cells,

wherein the control device is configured to:

send a light beam from a light source of the spectrometer,

transmit the light beam to a product to be analyzed with which it interacts, and

acquire light intensity measurements enabling a spectrum to be formed, by means of a sensor of the spectrometer, disposed on a route of the light beam after it has interacted with the product to be analyzed, the spectrometer being configured to acquire light intensity measurements by;

acquiring in the presence of the product to be analyzed measurements representative of the operation of the light source and independent of the product to be analyzed, the operation measurements comprising a measure of a temperature of the light source, and

determining, depending on the operation measurements, a value of integration time of light-sensitive cells of the sensor, and when the integration time value is between threshold values, adjusting the integration time of the light-sensitive cells to the determined integration time value

determine an integration time value applied to light-sensitive cells of the sensor;

compare the integration time value to threshold values; and

when the integration time value is not within the threshold values, adjusting a new value of the supply current of the light source such that the integration time value is within the threshold values, and when the supply current value is within the ideal operating range, supplying a supply current corresponding to the determined supply current value to the light source.

9. The spectrometer of claim 8, wherein the light source comprises several light-emitting diodes having different emission spectra to cover an analysis wavelength band, and a photodiode to measure the light intensity of the light beam emitted by the light-emitting diodes before the light beam interacts with the product to be analyzed.

10. The spectrometer of claim 9, wherein the light source is configured to supply the control device with voltages and/or currents for supplying the light-emitting diodes.

11. The spectrometer of claim 9, wherein the light-emitting diodes are integrated into a same electronic component.

12. The spectrometer of claim 11, wherein the electronic component further integrates the photodiode and a temperature sensor.

13. The spectrometer of claim 8, comprising a temperature sensor supplying measurements of the temperature of the light source, and/or a temperature sensor supplying measurements of the temperature of the sensor, and/or a temperature sensor supplying measurements of the temperature of the product to be analyzed.

14. The spectrometer of claim 8, comprising a measurement cell in which a product to be analyzed interacts with the light beam, an optical collimating element to shape the beam at output of the light source and transmit it to the measurement cell, a wavelength filter configured to spatially spread the different wavelengths of the light beam at output of the measurement cell and transmit them to different light-sensitive cells of the sensor, the light source, the optical element, the measurement cell, the filter and the sensor being assembled so as not to form any air zone susceptible of being passed through by the light beam between the light source and the sensor.

15. The spectrometer of claim 8, configured to determine, depending on the operation measurements, a value of supply current of the light source, and when the supply current value is within an ideal operating range, supplying the light source with a supply current corresponding to the determined supply current value.

16. The spectrometer of claim 8, wherein the measurements representative of the operation of the light source comprise at least one of:

a measurement of light intensity directly produced by the light source,

a measurement of the light source supply current intensity, and

a measurement of a light source supply voltage.

17. The spectrometer of claim 8, configured to:

perform a self-diagnosis test comprising at least one of the following comparisons;

comparisons to determine whether the measurements representative of the operation of the light source are consistent with each other, and

comparisons of supply current values supplied to the light source with minimum and maximum values, the spectrometer being configured to switch to a degraded or default operating mode when one of the comparisons reveals a defect.

18. The spectrometer of claim 8, configured to correct the light intensity measurements taking account of a difference of a reference temperature with the temperature of the product to be analyzed and/or with the temperature of the sensor, so as to obtain corrected light intensity measurements resulting from measurements taken at the reference temperature, the corrected measurements forming a corrected spectrum.

19. The spectrometer of claim 8, wherein the light source comprises several light-emitting diodes having distinct spectra covering an analysis wavelength band, the spectrometer being configured to, for each light-emitting diode:

switch on the light-emitting diode,

obtain a corrected spectrum for the switched-on light-emitting diode, and

add the corrected spectra obtained while applying weighting factors, to a resulting spectrum.

20. The spectrometer of claim 19, configured to average several resulting spectra, the number of averaged spectra being increased when an operating mode of the spectrometer switches from a normal to a degraded state.

21. The spectrometer of claim 20, configured to perform a calibration operation comprising:

determining minimum and maximum match values for matching measurements of light intensity directly produced by the light source with supply current setpoint values of the light source and/or with the temperature of the light source, and/or

determining minimum and maximum supply current setpoint values of the light source, and/or

determining minimum and maximum values of integration time of the light-sensitive cells of the sensor, and/or

determining, in the presence of one or more reference products, a function supplying an optimal integration time of a light-sensitive cell of the sensor according to a light intensity produced by the light source, and/or

varying independently, in the presence of one or more reference products, the temperature of the light source and/or the temperature of the sensor and/or the temperature of the reference product, collecting light intensity measurements supplied by the sensor, the supply current setpoint values of the light source, the integration times of the sensor, and temperature measurements, and determining a function supplying a corrected light intensity measurement corresponding to a reference temperature, according to the measurements collected.