INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE CONTROLLER

摘要

Disclosed is an internal combustion engine control device that includes a particulate matter sensor (2) which has a pair of electrodes (8, 10) disposed at a distance from each other and measures the amount of particulate matter in a gaseous body, and elimination means (16) for burning and eliminating particulate matter attached to the particulate matter sensor. The control device performs a particulate matter elimination process to judge whether the amount of particulate matter attached to the particulate matter sensor is smaller than a reference particulate matter amount that is predefined as the minimum amount of remaining particulate matter required to bring the pair of electrodes into electrical conduction at one or more spots. When the amount of particulate matter is judged to be smaller than the reference particulate matter amount, the control device causes the elimination means to terminate the particulate matter elimination process. This makes it possible to detect the amount of particulate matter in accordance with a sensor output even immediately after the particulate matter elimination process while reducing the amount of power consumed to eliminate the particulate matter accumulated on a sensor element section.