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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7400965 | Ignition control process A process is provided for ignition control in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine, using an ignition coil which has a connected primary winding and a secondary winding which is connected to a spark plug, and an ignition control unit which is used to control ... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7360527 | Method for operating an internal combustion engine A method for operating an internal combustion engine, particularly of a motor vehicle, is described. The engine has a number of cylinders (Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4), and in each of the cylinders (Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4), one mov... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7336464 | Power limiting circuit A power limiting circuit is disclosed. The power limiting circuit includes a temperature sensing circuit that outputs a temperature signal that is proportional to temperature over a temperature range. The power limiting circuit also includes a regulation circuit cou... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7328100 | Coil failure detection system for general-purpose engine In a failure detection system of coils that produce outputs in response to rotation of a crankshaft of a general-purpose engine (including a power coil that produces an output indicative of the engine speed), the outputs produced by the coils are inputted to determi... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7293554 | Ignition coil driver device with slew-rate limited dwell turn-on A device to control the charging rate of an ignition coil for an internal combustion spark ignition engine. The device controls the turn-on rate of the primary coil by slew-rate limiting using switching devices and a Miller-effect capacitor in order to reduce second... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7275514 | Method of HCCI and SI combustion control for a direct injection internal combustion engine The present invention relates to methods for robust controlled auto-ignition and spark ignited combustion controls in gasoline direct-injection engines, including transients, using either exhaust re-breathing or a combination of exhaust re-compression and re-breathi... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7263976 | Method for controlling an internal combustion engine A method is proposed for controlling an internal combustion engine having a crankshaft, in which from the angular pulses of a sensor a pulse time is formed that is a measure for the rotation of the crankshaft of the internal combustion engine per time unit. At a pre... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7251571 | Methods of diagnosing open-secondary winding of an ignition coil using the ionization current signal In a first embodiment, the present invention is a method of detecting an open secondary winding, including the steps of enabling an integrator, resetting the integrator, detecting an ionization current, integrating the ionization current over a spark window, compari... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7250799 | Semiconductor device A semiconductor device with a blind scheme for boosting an internal voltage using an external supply voltage is disclosed. The semiconductor device includes a voltage detector for detecting a voltage level of the external supply voltage being applied to the semicond... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7191051 | Method and apparatus for operating an injection system in an internal combustion engine In a method and an apparatus for operating an injection system of an internal combustion engine, triggering of an injection actuator being performed on the basis of at least one state variable of the injection system, in order to enhance the quantitative accuracy wi... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7165542 | High energy ignition method and system using pre-dwell control A system and method of managing the energy stored in a single ignition coil of a distributor inductive ignition for an engine. The engine comprises a plurality of cylinders and the ignition coil has a primary coil current. The ignition coil has a stored energy and a... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7134423 | Ignition diagnosis and combustion feedback control system using an ionization signal This feature of the present invention comprises an ignition diagnostics and feedback control system based upon detected ionization current in an individual cylinder. The system is divided into two subsystems: an ignition diagnostics subsystem and an ignition feedbac... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7131435 | Control apparatus for an internal combustion engine In step 400, microcomputer 12 calculates a temperature change amount ΔT1 of ignition coil FC caused by the heat generating from the ignition coil FC, based on a previous calculated temperature T(n−1) of ignition coil FC and an engine rotation... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7107976 | Inductive load powering arrangement An inductive load powering arrangement (20) utilizes current monitoring on only one side of the load (22) which in one example is a fuel injector coil. In disclosed examples, a high side driver (28) is on a first side of the coil (22) and... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7075313 | Electronic measuring instrument and method for operating an electronic measuring instrument An electronic measuring instrument encompasses a sensor for the acquisition of process variables, a main memory for the operating parameters of the measuring instrument as well as several additional memory blocks for at least part of the operating parameters of the ... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7055372 | Method of detecting cylinder ID using in-cylinder ionization for spark detection following partial coil charging The present feature of the invention comprises a method and apparatus for determining cylinder ID. When a cylinder is compressed, the resistance increases across the spark plug gap. Thus, if a spark coil is only partially charged before activation of the spark, the ... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7031124 | Synchronous soft-shutdown gate drive circuit A soft-shutdown circuit for shutting down a power device driven by a gate drive signal applied to a gate of the device, wherein an over-current condition through the device is sensed and a soft-shutdown of the device is initiated upon sensing of the current conditio... | 04/18/2006 |
| 7028676 | Inductive ignition system for internal combustion engines The ignition system for internal combustion engines includes a rotor and an armature having an ignition coil in which voltage signals, each having pulses of opposite polarities are cyclically induced during each rotor revolution; a control unit for the ignition curr... | 04/18/2006 |
| 7013882 | Over-dwell protection circuit for an automotive ignition control system An ignition control circuit (12) is responsive to a control signal (ESTC) to apply a drive signal (GD) to a power switching device (22) to conduct ignition coil current (IC) therethrough. A resistor (RS) included within the circui... | 03/21/2006 |
| 7007683 | Internal combustion engine ignition apparatus An internal combustion engine ignition apparatus includes a switching circuit having no power supply terminal connected to a power supply such as a battery is constructed, and including an output terminal connected to an ignition coil, an input terminal for receivin... | 03/07/2006 |
| 7005855 | Device to provide a regulated power supply for in-cylinder ionization detection by using the ignition coil fly back energy and two-stage regulation The present invention is directed to a dual charge rate power supply circuit and method for ionization detection. The circuit includes a first diode, first and second capacitors, and first and second current paths. The first diode includes an anode operably connecte... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6997171 | Ignition apparatus for an internal combustion engine An ignition apparatus for an internal combustion engine is capable of avoiding mis-ignition even if subject to external disturbances when a fail signal is transmitted through a common signal line on which an ignition signal can also be transmitted. An igniter is con... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6970780 | System and method for transitioning between engine device schedules based on engine operating condition A method and system are provided for controlling a device in an internal combustion engine such as a spark plug, a camshaft actuator, an EGR valve actuator, etc. The method and system are designed to compensate for changes in environmental operating conditions of th... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6951201 | Method for reducing pin count of an integrated coil with driver and ionization detection circuit by multiplexing ionization and coil charge current feedback signals In a first preferred embodiment, the present feature of the invention multiplexes both the ionization and driver current feedback signals into one signal, thus reducing cost and making coil packaging easier. The multiplexed signal first outputs the ionization detect... | 10/04/2005 |
| 6922057 | Device to provide a regulated power supply for in-cylinder ionization detection by using a charge pump A charge pump is used to supply current to the ionization detection circuit. To detect in-cylinder ions generated during the combustion process, a DC bias voltage needs to be applied. There are two ways to generate the DC bias: conventional DC power supply (large el... | 07/26/2005 |
| 6883508 | Method for controlling the primary ignition current of an internal combustion engine with controlled ignition Method for controlling a primary current in an ignition coil of an internal combustion engine with controlled ignition, the current is established in an inductive primary circuit over a given conduction time. The conduction time is calculated by: | 04/26/2005 |
| 6877495 | Vehicle ignition system using ignition module with reduced heat generation An ignition system includes an ignition coil, electronic control module that generates a signal, a distributor having a reluctor assembly, and an ignition module for receiving a signal from the electronic control module (ECM) and reluctor assembly. The ignition modu... | 04/12/2005 |
| 6820602 | High energy ignition method and system A system and method of managing the energy stored in a single ignition coil of a distributor inductive ignition for an engine is described. The engine comprises a plurality of cylinders and the ignition coil having dwell control parameters. The engine is operated at... | 11/23/2004 |
| 6805110 | Ignition control method and apparatus of an engine The invention discloses an apparatus and method that calculates parameters for ignition control with respect to a reference cylinder every 180° of crank angle and actuates a dwell-on period and the ignition of the ignition cylinder based on those parameters. A time... | 10/19/2004 |
| 6796297 | Device for ignition of an internal combustion engine A device for ignition of an internal combustion engine is described, having a computer and an ignition output stage. A current flow through the primary side of an ignition coil is controllable by the ignition output stage. Furthermore, an arrangement is provided for... | 09/28/2004 |
| 6763815 | Device and method for regulating the energy supply for ignition in an internal combustion engine A device for regulating the energy supply for the ignition of an internal combustion engine including an ignition coil and a central control unit, the ignition coil including a primary winding and an ignition power module connected to the primary winding. The centra... | 07/20/2004 |
| 6761156 | Multiplexed single wire control and diagnosis of an electrical object An ignition coil assembly for providing ignition energy to a spark plug in accordance with a dwell pulse and transmitting diagnostic data related to an ignition event occurring after the dwell pulse. The assembly has an ignition coil with a spark plug terminal adapt... | 07/13/2004 |
| 6752134 | Ignition arrangement An improved electronic ignition arrangement for an internal combustion engine having an output drive shaft, a rotary shaft drivingly coupled to the output drive shaft, a plurality of spark plugs, an ignition coil, and a rotor and distributor arrangement to effect se... | 06/22/2004 |
| 6736102 | Method for operating an internal combustion engine and corresponding arrangement A method for operating an internal combustion engine and a corresponding device are described, in which reference pulses are generated synchronously with respect to the cyclical movement of at least one part of the internal combustion engine. At least one event mome... | 05/18/2004 |
| 6668811 | Ignition control circuit providing temperature and battery voltage compensated coil current control An automotive ignition system (50) includes a control circuit (52) operable to drive a coil current switching device (24) connected between an ignition coil (30) referenced at battery voltage (VBATT) and a sense resistor (RS) referen... | 12/30/2003 |
| 6651637 | Vehicle ignition system using ignition module with reduced heat generation An ignition system for a vehicle includes a distributor having with a Hall Effect stator assembly and ignition module formed preferably as a thick film integrated (TFI) module, which receives a spark output (SPOUT) signal from an electronic control assemb... | 11/25/2003 |
| 6595192 | Ignition control device and method An ignition control device for controlling an ignition coil device for an internal combustion engine, having an angle measuring device for measuring the current crank angle of the internal combustion engine and for outputting an equidistant angle pulse si... | 07/22/2003 |
| 6591810 | Control system for internal combustion engine A control system for an internal combustion engine is provided which is capable of satisfying the demand of reducing the size, weight and cost thereof, and at the same time fulfilling sufficient timing accuracy for ignition timing without using a high per... | 07/15/2003 |
| 6575150 | Ignition timing control device for internal combustion engine In order to improve the control characteristics for ignition timing during transient operating conditions including engine startup, during engine transient operating conditions, a controller (1) sets an advance limit ADVLMT restricting the maximum value o... | 06/10/2003 |
| 6571783 | Ignition control device and method The present invention relates to an ignition control device for the control of an ignition coil device for an internal combustion engine having an engine speed detection device for detecting the engine speed of the internal combustion engine at a detectio... | 06/03/2003 |
