DC/AC Voltage Converter Control Architecture for Vehicle Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic architectures for d.c./a.c. voltage converters in vehicles lack robustness to ensure safety against anomalies in power supply components, potentially jeopardizing user and environmental safety during motion or charging processes.
Innovation Solution
A parallel arm architecture with paired H-bridges, a main control unit, and secondary control units, each with a processing and monitoring unit, configured for redundancy and independent operation, ensuring continued control even in case of anomalies, with dedicated power management and communication links for secure and reliable operation across high and low-voltage environments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a centralized control architecture is used for the d.c./a.c. voltage converter, then the control structure is simple, but the system reliability is reduced because anomalies in the main control unit can disrupt the operation of the converter
Solution Approach 1:
The control architecture is segmented into a main control unit and multiple secondary control units, each responsible for specific H-bridges. This segmentation isolates anomalies to individual secondary control units, preventing system-wide failures while maintaining overall system functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
Secondary control units act as intermediaries between the main control unit and the H-bridge switching cells. They receive control signals from the main unit and independently manage their designated H-bridges, providing a buffer that prevents direct propagation of anomalies from the main control unit to the power conversion components.
2Reliability
If redundant control units are added to each H-bridge, then the system reliability is improved against anomalies, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The converter is divided into multiple H-bridge modules, each with its own secondary control unit. This modular segmentation allows independent failure isolation while maintaining overall system operation through the remaining functional modules.
Solution Approach 2:
Each secondary control unit is dedicated to controlling specific switching cells in its assigned H-bridge, creating localized control zones. This local quality ensures that control functions are distributed appropriately without requiring full redundancy across the entire system.
3Reliability
If the monitoring unit modifies the state of switching cells based on processing unit information, then the system can respond to anomalies, but the control complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring units continuously monitor the state of switching cells and are pre-configured to detect anomalies. When anomalies are detected, the system can immediately modify the state of switching cells without requiring complex real-time analysis, as the monitoring logic is designed to recognize fault conditions and trigger appropriate responses.
Data Source
AI summary
Electronic architecture (3) for controlling a DC/AC voltage converter (2), said converter (2) comprising a plurality of arms mounted in parallel, each arm comprising two controllable switching cells (21), in series and separated by a mid-point, the arms being paired in H-bridges (20), the architecture (3) comprising: —a main control unit (36), configured to communicate through a potential barrier (61) with a remote control unit (35), and —a plurality of secondary control units (37), each secondary control unit (37) being dedicated to controlling a respective H-bridge (20), and comprising: —a processing unit (40) for processing the information received from the main control unit (36), and —a monitoring unit (41) for monitoring the controllable switching cells (21) of said H-bridge (20), said monitoring unit (41) being configured to modify the state of all or some of said switching cells (21) of said H-bridge (20) at least on the basis of information received from the corresponding processing unit (40).