Patent ID: 7260930

Claim:
A particulate trap regeneration system, comprising: a particulate trap having a filter medium configured to remove one or more types of particulate matter from an exhaust flow of an engine; a regeneration device configured to reduce an amount of particulate matter in the particulate trap; and a radio frequency-based particulate loading monitoring system configured to determine an amount of particulate matter trapped by the filter medium, the particulate loading monitoring system including: at least one radio frequency transmitting probe configured to transmit radio frequency signals of predetermined magnitude and predetermined frequency toward the filter medium; at least one radio frequency receiving probe configured to receive and measure the magnitude of received radio frequency signals that pass through the filter medium; a temperature sensing device configured to take a temperature measurement indicative of a temperature of the particulate trap at the time the radio signals are received by the receiving probe; and a controller configured to: determine, based on the measured magnitude of received radio frequency signals, a particulate loading value indicative of the amount of particulate matter trapped in the filter medium; perform a temperature compensation including modifying, based on the temperature measurement, at least one of the following: the measured magnitude of the received radio frequency signals that pass through the filter medium; or the particulate loading value; and activate the regeneration device in response to the particulate loading monitoring system detecting more than a predetermined amount of particulate matter trapped in the filter medium.