Patent ID: 6927988
Filing Date: 2005-08-09
Classification: B60L,G01R,H02P,Y02T

Abstract:
1. A fault determination method for assessing a condition of a power converter circuit, the power converter circuit comprising a number N of pairs of insulated gate bipolar transistors (“IGBTs”), each pair of IGBTs comprising an upper IGBT coupled to a first polarity of a DC power source and a lower IGBT coupled to a second polarity of the DC power source, the method comprising: selectively placing in a conducting state at least one of the upper IGBTs during a first time and selectively placing in a conducting state at least one of the lower IGBTs during the first time; and determining a set of IGBT operational states in response to a magnitude and a direction of a current through a load between the at least one upper and the at least one lower IGBT placed in the conducting state during the first time.