Abstract: A method for estimating rotor shaft velocity includes adding two counter rotating signal components to a fundamental motor control signal to provide a combined control signal; sensing at least one motor phase signal; determining an extracted portion of the motor phase signal representative of the two counter rotating signal components; and using the extracted portion to estimate rotor shaft velocity. The step of adding two counter rotating signal components may include either adding a single phase signal in a reference frame synchronous to the fundamental motor control signal or adding two separate signals.