Patent ID: 9709018
Date: 2017-07-18
CPC Classifications: F02B,F02P,H01T

Claim:
1. A corona ignition system, comprising: a corona igniter receiving energy and providing corona discharge during a plurality of corona events, wherein each corona event comprises a duration of time extending continuously from a start time to a stop time; a driver circuit providing the energy to the corona igniter during the corona events, the energy including at least one of a predetermined voltage level and a predetermined current level; the driver circuit obtaining information relating to the corona discharge of at least one of the corona events, the information including at least one of: timing of any occurrence of an arc formation relative to the start time of the corona event, duration between two consecutive occurrences of the arc formations, number of occurrences of the are formations over a period of time during the corona event, timing of an occurrence of the arc formation relative to the stop time of the corona event, total number of occurrences of the arc formations during the corona event, and the voltage level provided to the corona igniter at the stop time of the corona event; a control unit receiving the information relating to the corona discharge from the driver circuit, and the control unit adjusting at least one of the predetermined voltage level and the predetermined current level based on the information relating to the corona discharge; and the driver circuit applying at least one of the adjusted predetermined voltage level and the adjusted predetermined current level to the corona igniter during at least one subsequent corona event and not before the stop time of the at least one corona event from which the information was obtained.