Patent ID: 8415825

Claim:
A power conversion device mounted on a vehicle, said vehicle including a power storage device supplying DC power to said power conversion device, a collision detection unit for detecting a collision of said vehicle, and a relay configured to be capable of switching between supply and interruption of DC power from said power storage device to said power conversion device, and being interrupted when the collision of said vehicle is detected by said collision detection unit, said power conversion device comprising: a capacitor; a power conversion unit including a switching element and configured to convert electric power supplied from said power storage device through said relay; a gate driving unit for driving a gate of said switching element; and a control unit for controlling said gate driving unit to consume residual charge in said capacitor, said gate driving unit including a resistor changing unit configured to be capable of changing a resistance value of a gate resistor of said switching element, said resistor changing unit having a first gate resistor, and a second gate resistor larger in resistance value than said first gate resistor and being a resistor for protection of said switching element for gradually stopping said switching element in the event of an abnormality of said switching element, and said control unit controlling said gate driving unit to switch selection of gate resistor from said first gate resistor to said second gate resistor to increase a switching loss of said switching element in response to detection of the collision of said vehicle by said collision detection unit.