Method for detecting a single permanently conductive defective
semiconductor switch of the
semiconductor switches (210, 340) of a semi-controlled H-bridge (100) for setting an
excitation current of a separately excited synchronous
machine, wherein the semi-controlled H-bridge (100) a bridge
branch (200) with one of the
semiconductor switches T1 (210) and a
diode D3 (230) connected in series in
reverse bias and a further bridge
branch (300) comprising a further
diode D2 (320) in
reverse bias in series with a further semiconductor switch T4 (340) and a load
branch (400) comprising an excitation winding (460) of the separately excited synchronous
machine, wherein the load branch (400) connects a connection point (250) from one of the semiconductor switches T1 (210) and the
diode D3 (230) in the first bridge branch (200) and with a further connection point (350) between the further diode D2 (320) and the further semiconductor switch T4 (340) in the further bridge branch (300), and wherein a current measuring device (480) for measuring the current
excitation current is arranged in the load branch (400); wherein the semi-controlled H-bridge (100) is coupled to a control device (1200) comprising an
excitation current control (1220) which generates two pulse-width modulated control signals (611, 621) of the same frequency, phase-shifted by half a period, for controlling one of the semiconductor switches T1 (210) and the other of the semiconductor switches T4 (340), such that the excitation current flowing through the load branch (400) can be controlled via the pulse-width modulation of the control signals (611, 621) according to a requirement, wherein a
duty cycle in normal operation is limited to a range of 50% to 100%, wherein the
duty cycle is a ratio of the temporal pulse width of a
signal level (612, 622), which puts the correspondingly controlled semiconductor switch (210, 340) into a conducting state, to the period of the
control signal (611, 621) and wherein the load branch (400) comprises a current measuring device (480) to measure the excitation current,which is used as a feedback
signal by the excitation current control (1220), , the procedure includes the following steps: Detection of the excitation current and a target excitation current, Comparing the target excitation current according to the requirement with the excitation current measured and recorded by the current measuring device to determine a control deviation and Comparing the control deviation with a control deviation threshold and outputting an
error signal if the control deviation exceeds the control deviation threshold. where a supply
voltage U DC is detected, which is located at the semi-controlled H-bridge (100), and for this supply
voltage U DC a standard
duty cycle for a The target excitation current value is determined corresponding to the currently recorded measured excitation current value for a minimum possible load branch resistance value of the load branch (400), and an
error signal is output if the currently set duty cycle is smaller than the determined standard duty cycle. or for the excitation current value measured at the currently set duty cycle and the A standard duty cycle range (1080) is determined from the measured supply
voltage, which includes duty cycles that correspond to the currently measured excitation current value for various possible load branch resistances, and it is checked whether the currently set duty cycle is within the standard duty cycle range (1080), and a short-circuited semiconductor switch is detected if the currently set duty cycle is not within the determined standard duty cycle range (1080).