Power converter
A power converter including transistors, a converter controller, and a functional safety controller that outputs a gate drive allowing signal. Further, there is shutoff circuitry that outputs a result of a logical conjunction using the gate pulse and the gate drive allowing signal as a drive signal, gate drive circuitry that outputs a gate signal on the basis of the drive signal, and a current detector that detects current flowing through a phase including the transistors and outputs a current value. After confirming on the basis of the current value and the gate signal that the gate signal changes to an on state during a period of no current flow through the transistor, the functional safety controller puts the gate drive allowing signal into a temporarily off state while the gate pulse is on and determines whether or not the gate signal changes to an off state.
1. A power converter comprising:
a pair of transistors connected in series to be used in power conversion;
a converter controller configured to output a gate pulse specific to each of the transistors in performing on and off control of the transistors;
a functional safety controller configured to output a gate drive allowing signal specific to each of the transistors in an on state when not determining integrity of a gate shutoff function for the transistors;
a pair of shutoff circuitries, corresponding to the pair of transistors respectively, each configured to output a result of a logical conjunction that uses the gate pulse and the gate drive allowing signal;
a pair of gate drive circuitries corresponding to the pair of transistors respectively, each configured to output a gate signal to drive the transistor on a basis of the drive signal to the transistor and the functional safety controller; and
a current detector configured to detect current flowing through a phase including the pair of transistors and configured to output a detection result as a current value to the functional safety controller, wherein
for each of the transistors, after confirming on a basis of the current value and the gate signal that the gate signal changes to an on state during a period of no current flow through the transistor, the functional safety controller is configured to:
put the gate drive allowing signal into a temporarily off state while the gate pulse is on; and
determine whether or not the gate signal changes to an off state.
2. The power converter according to claim 1 , wherein
upon determining an anomaly in the gate shutoff function for one of the transistors, the functional safety controller is configured to turn off the gate drive allowing signal for each of the pair of transistors.
3. The power converter according to claim 1 , wherein
the power converter comprises:
a plurality of legs each including the pair of transistors connected in series;
a plurality of the pairs of shutoff circuitries corresponding respectively to the plural pairs of transistors and a plurality of the pairs of gate drive circuitries corresponding to the plural pairs of transistors respectively, and
a plurality of the current detectors corresponding to the plurality of legs respectively, wherein
the converter controller is configured to output a plurality of the gate pulses for performing the on and off control of the plural pairs of transistors, wherein
the functional safety controller is configured to:
output a plurality of the gate drive allowing signals in the on state correspondingly to the plural transistors when not determining integrity of a gate shutoff function for the transistors;
confirm that the gate signal changes to the on state during a period of no current flow through the transistor for each of the transistors on the basis of the current value and the gate signal;
put the gate drive allowing signal into the temporarily off state while the gate pulse is on; and
determine whether or not the gate signal changes to the off state.
4. The power converter according to claim 3 , wherein
upon determining an anomaly in the gate shutoff function for at least one of the transistors, the functional safety controller is configured to turn off the gate drive allowing signals for all the plural transistors.