Controlled energy ignition system for an internal combustion engine

摘要

The system has a primary coil (102) which is responsive to activation of a control signal to produce a spark voltage across a secondary coil (104) which responds to the spark voltage to produce a discharge current across a spark gap (65). A variable resistor (118), controlled by a control computer (112), is connected across the spark gap to limit the discharge current to below a threshold current value within some predefined time period after activation of the control signal. Alternatively a device may be included for establishing a supplemental voltage across at least a portion of either the primary or secondary coil to produce a supplemental discharge current across the spark gap.