Functional monitoring unit for monitoring functionality of current regulator utilized for controlling current flow over inductive load in safety-critical application, has diagnostic unit producing test signal that is output via interface

摘要

The monitoring unit (22) has an interface (24) for receiving a diagnostic signal, and another interface (28) for outputting test signals. A diagnostic unit (26) processes the received diagnostic signal and produces a test signal based on the processed diagnostic signal, so that the test signal is output over the latter interface. The latter interface exchanges regulation and/or measurement signals for controlling current flow via an inductive load (16) between a control unit (10) e.g. microcontroller and digital signal processor, and the monitoring unit. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) a method for monitoring functionality of a current regulator (2) a method for controlling current flow over a load (3) a computer program product comprising a set of instructions for carrying out a method for controlling current flow over a load.