Patent ID: 8141350

Claim:
A system comprising: an electric heater comprising N zones that correspond to N longitudinal portions along a length of a particulate matter (PM) filter, respectively, wherein N is an integer greater than one; a regeneration module that controls a first one of the N zones of the electric heater to heat exhaust gas produced by an engine, and that determines when a regeneration cycle of a first one of the N longitudinal portions of the PM filter begins by comparing a temperature of the exhaust gas input to the PM filter and a first temperature threshold, wherein the first one of the N longitudinal portions of the PM filter corresponds to the first one of the N zones of the electric heater; and a diagnostic module that determines a regeneration status of the regeneration cycle by comparing a temperature of the exhaust gas output by the PM filter and a second temperature threshold during a predetermined period after the regeneration cycle begins, wherein the regeneration module controls a second one of the N zones of the electric heater to start another regeneration cycle of a corresponding second one of the N longitudinal portions of the PM filter when the regeneration status indicates that the regeneration cycle was incomplete.