摘要 |
A self charging ion current sensing circuit is provided. The self charging ion current sensing circuit is coupled to spark generation circuitry, and utilizes the spark plug electrodes as the ion current sensing electrodes. The self charging is achieved by utilizing the spark current during an ignition event to charge an ion bias capacitor. After the ignition event, the charge voltage build up on the ion bias capacitor is used to provide an ion current across the spark plug gap. The ion current is passed through an offset stage that translates the ion current sense voltage to a voltage that can be buffered and amplified from a single power source available in automotive and vehicular applications. The output of the circuit provides tri-state information, including spark current, null current, and linear representation of ion sense current. |