Patent ID: 9606184
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: G01R,H02M,H03K

Claim:
1. A method for determining fault states in a half-bridge circuit having a first semiconductor switch and a second semiconductor switch connected to one another in a series circuit, wherein each of the first semiconductor switch and the second semiconductor switch is controllable by a control signal of a respective first and second circuit arrangement to switch between an open switching state and a closed switching state, the method comprising: determining an actual switching state by the first circuit arrangement and a reference switching state of the first semiconductor switch, determining an actual switching state by the second circuit arrangement and a reference switching state of the second semiconductor switch, and identifying a bridge short circuit in the half-bridge circuit in response to determining that (a) the actual switching state of the first semiconductor switch is different from the reference switching state of the first semiconductor switch and (b) the actual switching state of the second semiconductor switch is different from the reference switching state of the second semiconductor switch.