Circuit arrangement

Abstract

Circuit arrangement for controlling and supplying a component in a motor vehicle, wherein the circuit arrangement (50) has at least two channels (54, 56) for controlling and supplying the component, in each of the two channels (54, 56) at least one supply unit (60, 70), one computing unit, one driver unit and one output stage are provided as components.

Description

The invention relates to a circuit arrangement, in particular a circuit arrangement for use in a motor vehicle, which is configured to actuate a component, such as an electric motor, for example.Prior ArtPower electronic systems are used for transforming electrical energy with electronic components and are used at different locations in motor vehicles.With an increasing number of applications in the motor vehicle, it is necessary to design power electronic systems used in motor vehicles in a redundant manner. This means that components in the power electronic system are provided redundantly in order to be able to ensure safe operation even in the event of failure of one of the components. In this way, it is ensured that functions in the system can be executed reliably even in the event of failure of components assigned to the function. Functions are consequently implemented redundantly.Examples of this are in connection with autonomous driving operation, automated driving operation and also in so-called by-wire implementations of, for example. The steering and brake are then applied. In these areas, high availability is required, since both communication and supply must not fail.This is currently achieved with a completely redundant design of the components in question, i.e. a complete redundancy, which in turn means that at least doubling of supply, communication and electronic modules is necessary; reference is made in this connection to FIG. 1.Disclosure of the InventionAgainst this background, a circuit arrangement according to claim 1 is presented. Embodiments will be apparent from the dependent claims and from the description.The circuit arrangement presented serves for driving and supplying a component in a motor vehicle, wherein the circuit arrangement has at least two channels for driving and supplying the component, and at least one supply unit, a computing unit, for example a microcontroller, a driver unit, for example a gate driver unit (GD), and an output stage are provided as components in each of the two channels.In one embodiment, the components are arranged in the two channels in electronic modules which can be reconfigured at runtime.A reduced hardware outlay is proposed herein, which nevertheless implements the complete reliability. For this purpose, the partitioning of the electronic system is changed.In known approaches, a central intelligence is typically provided. The approach presented herein enables a splitting of this central intelligence into a central and decentralized intelligence. Furthermore, common communication buses including power transmission may be provided.In the event of failure of one of the electronic modules, this can be compensated for by another electronic module. This other electronic module can be addressed in a targeted manner or can also detect the failure and automatically assume the function of the failed module.Further advantages and embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the description and the appended drawings.It is understood that the features mentioned above and those still to be explained below can be used not only in the respectively specified combination, but also in other combinations or alone, without departing from the scope of the present invention.Brief Description of the DrawingsFIG. 1 shows a redundantly constructed circuit arrangement for driving an electric motor. FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement presented for controlling an electric motor. FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a circuit arrangement for driving an electric motor having three channels. FIG. 4 shows a further embodiment of the circuit arrangement presented for controlling an electric motor. FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the presented circuit arrangement for controlling an electric motor after a first failure. FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the presented circuit arrangement for controlling an electric motor after a second failure. FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of a circuit arrangement for driving an electric motor having three channels after failure of one channel. FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of a circuit arrangement for driving an electric motor having three channels after failure of one channel. FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement presented for controlling an electric motor with a flexible connection. FIG. 10 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement presented for controlling an electric motor with a flexible connection after a failure.Embodiments of the InventionThe invention is schematically illustrated in the drawings on the basis of embodiments and is described in detail below with reference to the drawings.FIG. 1 shows a circuit arrangement for driving and supplying an electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 10. This circuit arrangement 10, which is connected to an electric motor 12, comprises channels constructed redundantly with respect to one another, of which a first channel 14 and an nth channel 16 are shown in this illustration.In the first channel 14, a first supply unit 20, a first microcontroller 22 as a computing unit, a first gate driver 24 and a first output stage 26 are provided. In the nth channel 16, an nth supply unit 30, an nth microcontroller 32, an nth gate driver 34 and an nth output stage 36 are provided.FIG. 1 illustrates that redundancy can be achieved with great effort only in this procedure, for example by doubling or tripling, for example in conjunction with x-by-wire. The approach further presented herein makes it possible to dynamically reconfigure the interconnection. In this way, the required redundancy does not have to be provided for all the electronics blocks as often as possible, but can be adapted to the permissible probability of failure.It is also to be taken into account that individual electronic blocks can assume not only the function of another block, but also the functions of a plurality of other blocks. The number of redundancies can be determined, for example, by the tolerable power loss or also calculation loss.The approach shown is applicable to p-phase systems. These can continue to operate, for example, even in the event of a phase failure, and the distributed reconfigurable intelligence and power electronics find the appropriate distribution of the necessary control signals to the still functional units.In this case, the performance can be designed such that the full performance is also possible after first I / O errors or is reduced in other designs, in particular with regard to performance and / or regulating speed and communication speed.The concept can be used in all fields of energy conversion, such as, for example, drive technology. For example, the phase angle of rotary motors can be adapted and the motor can continue to be operated even in the event of a phase failure.Corresponding to the requirements for redundancy or reliability, the individual strands are doubled, see FIG. 1.The line consists here of the independent mains supply, for example in vehicles mains 1 and 2. these are typically assigned to a number of supply units, for example internal voltage converters, for example also more than two internal voltage converters.Each supply unit serves a computer that controls the gate driver connected to the power output stage, which serves, for example, one phase of an actuator, or rigidly connects n phases, i.e., is not dynamically reconfigurable.FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement for driving and supplying an electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 50. This circuit arrangement 50, which is connected to an electric motor 52, comprises channels constructed redundantly with respect to one another, of which a first channel 54 and an nth channel 56 are shown in this illustration.In the first channel 54, a first supply unit 60, a first unit 62 with microcontroller (μC)+gate driver (GD: gate driver) and a second unit 64 with output stage (PS: power stage) and GD are provided. In the nth channel 56, an nth supply unit 70, a first nth unit 72 with μC+GD and a second nth unit 74 with final stage and GD are provided.The following features can be realized in the circuit arrangement presented: 1. electronics modules reconfigurable at runtime for supplying and controlling the actuators or energy stores, 2. the number of supplies μC+GD* and PS+GD** Module can be different, 3. the potential separation necessary, for example, in the case of different on-board power supply systems is moved out of the motor into the supply modules, 4. the wiring between μC+GD* and PS+GD** is designed as a point to multipoint, further variants are point to point, multipoint to point or multipoint to multipoint (swarm intelligence), 5. the redundancy is flexible and easily scalable, 6.The topology comprises microcontrollers (μC) with pre-drivers and intelligent power output stages, 7.The topology enables different transport media over flexible routes.Points 4 to 7 will be discussed in more detail below:In (4),System availability is to be increased by achieving full to reduced functionality and performance after the first failure and the safe state after the second failure.The classic approach in a two-channel drive system allows the system to continue to operate after the first fault case. However, the system is no longer available after the second failure, this is critical for safety-relevant systems and in connection with by-wire systems. To meet the safety requirements, a third channel is needed to transition the system to a safe state after the second failure. This solution entails considerable disadvantages with regard to costs and space requirements, see FIG. 3.FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement for driving and supplying an electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 100. This circuit arrangement 100, which is connected to an electric motor 102, comprises three channels constructed redundantly with respect to one another, namely a first channel 104, a second channel 106 and a third channel 108.In the first channel 104, a first supply unit 110, a first unit 112 with μC+GD and a second unit 114 with output stages (PS) and GD are provided. In the second channel 106, a first supply unit 120, a first unit 122 with μC+GD and a second unit 124 with final stage and GD are provided. In the third channel 108, a first supply unit 130, a first unit 132 with μC+GD and a second unit 134 with output stage and GD are provided.Units 122, 124, 132 and 134 represent electronic modules of the type described herein which are freely reconfigurable in this embodiment. This also applies correspondingly to the embodiments of the further figures.The point-to-multipoint connection of the electronic components is important with the aim of increasing the availability of the drive system without the need for multiplication of the logical channels. A flexible wiring which can be dynamically reconfigured is made from a purely serial connection of the electronics units according to the requirements in normal operation. In the event of a fault, the options are redistributed accordingly. The pure component outlay is reduced, the abstract complexity is increased, for example with regard to the algorithms.The point-to-multipoint approach receives the 2-channel solution and couples the electronic components of the two channels so that they are interchangeable if one of the components has failed. The fail-operational requirements, i.e., the requirements for fault tolerance, are met after the first fault. After a second failure, the system is still operational and brings the system with limited performance into a safe state, which also meets the safety requirements, see FIG. 4.FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement for driving and supplying an electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 150. This circuit arrangement 150, which is connected to an electric motor 152, comprises channels constructed redundantly with respect to one another, of which a first channel 154 and an nth channel 156 are shown in this illustration.In the first channel 154, a first supply unit 160, a first unit 162 with μC+GD and a second unit 164 with output stage and GD are provided. In the n-th channel 156, a first supply unit 170, a first unit 172 with μC+GD and a second unit 174 with final stage and GD are provided.FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement for driving and supplying an electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 200. This circuit arrangement 200, which is connected to an electric motor 202, comprises channels constructed redundantly with respect to one another, of which a first channel 204 and an nth channel 206 are shown in this illustration.In the first channel 204, a first supply unit 210, a first unit 212 with μC+GD and a second unit 214 with final stage and GD are provided. In the n-th channel 206, a first supply unit 220, a first unit 222 with μC+GD and a second unit 224 with final stage and GD are provided.After a first fault failure at the first unit 212 in the first channel 204, the first unit 222 in the second channel 206 assumes the actuation of the motor. The overall performance is further guaranteed.FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement for driving and supplying an electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 250. This circuit arrangement 250, which is connected to an electric motor 252, comprises channels constructed redundantly with respect to one another, of which a first channel 254 and an nth channel 256 are shown in this illustration.In the first channel 254, a first supply unit 260, a first unit 262 with μC+GD and a second unit 264 with output stage and GD are provided. In the n-th channel 256, a first supply unit 270, a first unit 272 with μC+GD and a second unit 274 with final stage and GD are provided.After a second fault in the second unit 274 in the second channel 256, the motor is controlled by the unit 264 in the first channel 254. Only three phases can be controlled here and thus only 50% of the power is available.Advantages are:reduced electronic components for increased availability,higher available systems with reduced costs, installation space and integration effort,Scalable Concept for Redundancy Mapping.An alternative approach consists in multiplying the logic channels with the correspondingly high installation space and integration effort in order to achieve the same availability.The point-to-multipoint connection of the electronic components can be implemented, for example, in electric drives with high availability requirements for safety classification, such as, for example. The brake, steering, system can be used. The approach can also be used for multi-actuator applications.In (5),A need-based possibility for scaling the redundancies is presented.If a system must be first fault tolerant, this is achieved in the case of known procedures by doubling or redundancy of the electronic components. Thus, continued operation of the system after a first fault is made possible. However, since the second channel can fail at any time, the system must be transferred as quickly as possible into a safe state after the first fault, in particular in the case of by-wire systems.In order to be able to ensure high availability even after a first fault, a third channel is required in order to be able to transfer the system into a safe state even after a second failure. This solution entails a considerable cost and space penalty. Due to the flexible point-to-multipoint interconnection, a complete third channel does not necessarily have to be implemented. It may be sufficient to provide only certain components in triplicate. In the event of a failure in channel 1 or 2, the respective component can take over the task of the failed component as required.FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement for driving and supplying a 6-phase electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 300. This circuit arrangement 300, which is connected to an electric motor 302, comprises three channels constructed redundantly with respect to one another, namely a first channel 304, a second channel 306 and a third channel 308.In the first channel 304, a first supply unit 310, a first unit 312 with μC+GD and a second unit 314 with final stage and GD are provided. In the second channel 306, a first supply unit 320, a first unit 322 with μC+GD and a second unit 324 with final stage and GD are provided. In the n-th channel 308, a first supply unit 330 and a first unit 332 with μC+GD are provided.FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement for driving and supplying an electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 350. This circuit arrangement 350, which is connected to an electric motor 352, comprises three channels constructed redundantly with respect to one another, namely a first channel 354, a second channel 356 and an nth channel 358.In the first channel 354, a first supply unit 360, a first unit 362 with μC+GD and a second unit 364 with final stage and GD are provided. In the second channel 356, a first supply unit 370, a first unit 372 with μC+GD and a second unit 374 with final stage and GD are provided. In the n-th channel 358, a first supply unit 380 and a first unit 382 with μC+GD are provided.After a first fault failure in the first channel (reference numeral 362), the second μC 372 assumes the control of the power output stages. Thus, all the power is still available.After a second fault case in the μC in the unit 372, the driving of the gate drivers 1 and gate drivers 2 is taken over by the μC in the unit 382. Thus, ideally, up to 100% system power is still available until it is brought into the safe state.Advantages of the procedure are:reduced number of electronic components for increased availability,high-availability system with reduced installation space and costs compared to present-day concepts,Scalable Concept for Mapping Redundancy.An alternative approach is to multiply the entire logical channels with the correspondingly high costs by the installation space requirement in order to achieve the same availability.The principle of scalable redundancy can be used, for example, in electric drives with high requirements for availability and safety, as are the case, for example, with brake, steering and systems with similar requirements.In (6), (6)The classic approach in a two-channel drive system allows the system to continue to operate after the first fault case. However, the system is no longer available after the second failure. This is critical for safety-relevant systems and in the context of by-wire systems. To meet the safety requirements, a third channel is needed to bring the system into a safe state after the second failure. This solution entails a considerable cost and space penalty. There are known "dumme" electronic modules for the supply units, gate drivers and power output stages. The driving and the energy transfer take place with analog or digital signals, but there is typically no combination of the signal types. The module-level combination and intelligent evaluation allows flexibility and loss redundancy. The "dummen" electronic modules are intelligent for this purpose and search themselves independently for information and energy relevant to them from the data and energy stream.A flexible wiring which can be dynamically reconfigured is made from a purely serial connection of the electronics units according to the requirements in normal operation. In the event of a fault, redistribution is carried out according to the options. The pure component outlay is reduced, the abstract complexity is increased, as for example in the case of the algorithms, see FIG. 2.It is generally known, for example for a DC-DC converter, that the current and voltage ripple in n-phase converters is the lowest if the phases of the converter have a phase shift of 360° / n with respect to one another. In the event of failure of an electronics module, the phase is preferably also controlled by the remaining modules. If this is not possible or successful, the phase shift is readjusted and the computing expenditure is redistributed. This is facilitated or made possible only in the present approach. The same is also done with a polyphase drive motor.This is also made possible by the circuit arrangement presented. The topology of the circuit is changed.Supply modules, μC and pre-drivers and the power output stages with the gate drivers each form one unit. In a matrix, both the supply and communication signals are distributed to the various modules. This enables the dynamic reconfiguration of the system in the event of failure of a line or a module and thereby avoids the otherwise necessary doubling in order to achieve redundancy. In this topology, a communication intelligence and a decentralized supply group are always necessary within the modules. These blocks cooperate with the central intelligence in the μC+GD module and the central supply module. By distributing intelligence into central and decentralized components and at the same time supplying it into central and decentralized components, the modules can be flexibly reconfigured at runtime. The computing tasks occurring can be redistributed or simplified in a time-sequential manner. The total electrical power available is easily reduced in the event of a fault, in accordance with the division into the modules, without limiting the fundamental function.If no restrictions are permitted in the event of a fault, spare devices, so-called spares, are kept available which dynamically take over the failure of any module of the same type.When all modules are ready for use, the highest performance is available in terms of computing power, control power and electrical power. Alternatively, reserves are provided in order to provide the necessary performance over the service life in the event of degradation to be scheduled.If a single module now fails and, as a result, for example, the computing power is reduced, a further computing module can take over the tasks in a time-sequential manner due to the novel topology. The reaction speed decreases in this example, the corresponding vehicle must only be operated at a reduced speed or drive power, for example. Depending on the number of modules, however, this restriction is rather low. A severe restriction of the readiness for use or even a complete failure can be avoided. The precise coordination is effected by distributing the overall requirement to, for example, the computing power among n modules in accordance with the importance of the addressed function.To (7)As has already been explained, a dynamically reconfigurable flexible wiring can be achieved from a purely serial connection of the electronics units in accordance with the requirements in normal operation. In the event of a fault, the options are redistributed accordingly. The pure component outlay is reduced, and the abstract complexity, for example with regard to the algorithms, is increased.It is generally known, for example, for the DC-DC converter that the current and voltage ripple in the n-phase converter is the smallest if the phases of the converter have a phase shift of 360° / n with respect to one another. In the event of failure of an electronics module, the phase is preferably also controlled by the remaining modules. If this is not possible or expedient, the phase shift is readjusted and the computing costs are redistributed. This is facilitated or even made possible for the first time by the approach described herein. In this way, a polyphase drive motor is also adopted.The use of flexible links as a fully flexible solution instead of hard-wired connections is now proposed. Flexible routes can be represented, for example, by infrared, powerline, radio, etc.The approach can be used, for example, for point to multipoint. For example, in the event of failure of one controller (μC+GD), another controller can take over the control. By using flexible paths, the downstream unit, in this example the final stage (PS+GD), can be controlled directly. This is effected, for example, via unique identifiers for the individual downstream units.The control of a plurality of phases by a controller is also possible by means of the flexible paths. Thus, controller 2 would drive both power output stage 1 and power output stage 2 at the proper time.An increase in redundancy and thus a reduction in errors in a time interval (FIT: Failure In Time) can be effected by the further use of controller units connected via flexible links. Each individual controller can control the downstream power output stages.FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement for driving and supplying an electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 400. This circuit arrangement 400, which is connected to an electric motor 402, comprises channels constructed redundantly with respect to one another, of which a first channel 404 and a second channel 406 are shown in this illustration.In the first channel 404, a first supply unit 410, a first unit 412 with μC+GD and a second unit 414 with final stage and GD are provided. In the second channel 406, a first supply unit 420, a first unit 422 with μC+GD and a second unit 424 with final stage and GD are provided.FIG. 10 shows an embodiment of the circuit arrangement for driving and supplying an electric motor, which is denoted overall by the reference numeral 450. This circuit arrangement 450, which is connected to an electric motor 452, comprises ducts constructed redundantly with respect to one another, of which a first duct 454 and a second duct 456 are illustrated in this illustration.In the first channel 454, a first supply unit 460, a first unit 462 with μC+GD and a second unit 464 with final stage and GD are provided. In the second channel 456, a first supply unit 470, a first unit 472 with μC+GD and a second unit 474 with final stage and GD are provided.Advantages of this solution are:Elimination of hard-wired connections,individual control of the components arranged downstream in each case,also several downstream components can be controlled simultaneously or offset, can be designed flexibly and thus can be mapped to desired redundancy,This feature is provided by the invention in which point to point, point multipoint, multipoint to point and multipoint to multipoint configurations are possible.An alternative approach is to keep the maximum possible number of connections available through hard wired connections and then individually switch them. This results in enormous increased outlay with regard to the wiring and also an enormous increase in the components.The point-to-multipoint connection of the electronic components can be used, for example, in electric drives with high demands with regard to availability and safety classification, for example, in the case of a brake, steering, system. The approach can also be used in a multi-actuator control.

Claims

Circuit arrangement for driving and supplying a component in a motor vehicle, wherein the circuit arrangement (10, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450) has at least two channels (14, 16, 54, 56, 104, 106, 154, 156, 204, 206, 254, 256, 304, 306, 354, 356, 404, 406, 454, 456) for driving and supplying the component, at least one supply unit (20, 30, 60, 70, 110, 120, 160, 170, 210, 220, 260, 270, 310, 330, 360, 370, 380, 410, 420, 460, 470) each of which is provided as components in the two channels (14, 16, 54, 56, 104, 106, 154, 156, 204, 206, 254, 256, 304, 306, 354, 356, 404, 406, 454, 456).Circuit arrangement according to Claim 1, in which, in the two channels (14, 16, 54, 56, 104, 106, 154, 156, 204, 206, 254, 256, 304, 306, 354, 356, 404, 406, 454, 456), the components are arranged in electronic modules which can be reconfigured at runtime.Circuit arrangement according to Claim 1 or 2, which is configured to drive and supply an electric motor (12, 52, 102, 152, 202, 252, 302, 352, 402, 452).The circuit arrangement of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the electronics modules in the at least two channels (14, 16, 54, 56, 104, 106, 154, 156, 204, 206, 254, 256, 304, 306, 354, 356, 404, 406, 454, 456) are connected to each other at least in part via point to multipoint connections.Circuit arrangement according to one of Claims 1 to 4, in which the at least two channels (14, 16, 54, 56, 104, 106, 154, 156, 204, 206, 254, 256, 304, 306, 354, 356, 404, 406, 454, 456) are constructed redundantly with respect to one another, a flexible and scalable redundancy being provided.Circuit arrangement according to one of Claims 1 to 5, in which microcontrollers are used as arithmetic units and intelligent power output stages are used as output stages.Circuit arrangement according to Claim 6, in which predrivers are additionally provided.Circuit arrangement according to one of Claims 1 to 7, in which communication between electronic modules takes place via flexible transport media.Circuit arrangement according to Claim 8, in which the communication takes place via power line, radio and / or infrared.Circuit arrangement according to one of Claims 1 to 9, which is designed to be transferred into a safe state in the event of failure of at least one of the electronic modules.Circuit arrangement according to one of Claims 1 to 10, in which a potential separation is shifted into the at least one supply unit.

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