Patents Examined by Erick D Glass
  • Patent number: 10938321
    Abstract: An electrical converter with at least two output phases includes a rectifier and a thyristor-based inverter interconnected by a DC link with an inductor, wherein the thyristor-based inverter includes a half-bridge with at least two half-bridge arms for each output phase of the electrical converter and each arm being provided by a thyristor. A method for switching the electrical converter includes: cyclically switching the thyristors of the inverter, such that at least one time instant, two thyristors of different half-bridge arms are switched on simultaneously, such that a pulse number, which determines at how many time instants thyristors of the inverter are switched during one stator voltage period, is lower than the number of half-bridge arms of the inverter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: ABB Schweiz AG
    Inventors: Thomas Besselmann, Martin Bruha, Pieder Jörg, Stefan Almer
  • Patent number: 10931216
    Abstract: A stepper driver for a motor includes an H-bridge, a sense transistor coupled to the H-bridge, a voltage-to-current (Vtol) converter, and a sine digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The Vtol converter has a Vtol converter input and a Vtol converter output. The Vtol converter output is coupled to the sense transistor. The sine DAC has a sine DAC digital input, a reference input, and a sine DAC output. The sine DAC output is coupled to the Vtol converter input. The sine DAC includes an R-2R network, an offset control circuit coupled to the R-2R network, and a gain control circuit also coupled to the R-2R network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Krishnamurthy Shankar, Venkata Naresh Kotikelapudi
  • Patent number: 10927491
    Abstract: A motor has a two rotors which are independently operated using a single inverter and without being supplied with a complex current. Further the motor is capable of shifting a rotation direction of each of two rotors by performing a magnetizing operation one time and reversing polarities of the shifting magnets when a mode of the motor is shifted from a synchronous mode in which the first rotor and the second rotor rotate in the same direction to a counter mode in which the first rotor and the second rotor rotate in opposite directions, and shifting the mode of the motor to the counter mode while the magnetizing operation is performed one time times and relative positions of the first rotor and the second rotor are changed when the first rotor and the second rotor inertially rotate in the synchronous mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Miyake, Hidekazu Funakoshi, Hiroshi Katsumoto, Kenji Kitajima, Masaki Oshige, Nakagawa Yukinori, Tomonori Ueno, Yasumasa Nagasaki, Yasuyuki Sonoda
  • Patent number: 10931197
    Abstract: A power conversion device, mounted on a motor vehicle, has a battery, a power converter, a reactor and a control unit. The power conversion device boosts a battery voltage of the battery, and supplies a boosted voltage to a motor generator mounted on a motor vehicle. The power conversion device transmits electric power generated by the motor generator and supplies the generated electric power to the battery through the power converter. The power converter has an upper arm and a lower arm. The upper arm has upper arm side switching elements. The lower arm has lower arm side switching elements which are directly connected to the respective upper arm side switching elements. At least one of the upper arm side switching elements is composed of a MOS FET and at least one of the lower arm side switching elements is composed of an IGBT.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tatsuya Murakami, Yuu Yamahira, Kengo Mochiki
  • Patent number: 10921767
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, an encoder system includes an encoder and an interface. The encoder detects the position and speed of a motor, and generates A-, B- and Z-phase signals. The interface includes an AB waveform recognition circuitry to recognize a waveform of an AB phase, a Z waveform recognition circuitry to recognize a period of an enable state of a Z phase, a starting point storage device to store a value of the AB phase when the Z phase changes and stores an AB-phase change pattern, a starting point recognition circuitry to generate an interrupt signal, and a rotation angle counter to start a new count of the rotation angle of the motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation
    Inventors: Akihiro Kobayashi, Makoto Kanda, Shigeru Itoh, Hiroshi Nishikawa, Wataru Furuichi, Kiyoshige Taga, Kazuma Takeda
  • Patent number: 10916997
    Abstract: An electric motor is disclosed that includes a stator winding defining a plurality of poles, with the winding being controllable to switch between a first number of poles and a second number of poles. A rotor rotatable within the stator includes a first group of magnetic flux barriers being without permanent magnet material and a second group of magnetic flux barriers at least partially filled with a permanent magnet material. A method of operating a line-start electric motor is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2021
    Assignee: Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation
    Inventor: Jacek F. Gieras
  • Patent number: 10913444
    Abstract: An improved power system architecture for a hybrid electric vehicle includes a power control unit including a motor inverter, a generator inverter, and a DC-to-DC converter, and vehicle power management (VPM) circuitry directly connected to each of the motor inverter, generator inverter, and DC-to-DC converter. In this arrangement, communication timing is greatly reduced, thereby allowing for feedforward control of the motor inverter, generator inverter, and DC-to-DC converter. The feedforward control enables the VPM circuitry to predict current influx or draw by a motor and determine the corresponding currents to provide to or from the generator and battery prior to or simultaneously with the actual current influx or draw by the motor. This improves vehicle dynamics and responsiveness, as well as enables complete recapture of braking currents and eliminates the need for a brake chopper resistor, thereby improving overall vehicle efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2021
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventors: Guozhen Zhou, Long Wu, Kent D. Wanner, Sean West
  • Patent number: 10906187
    Abstract: An unmanned ground vehicle includes a main body, a drive system supported by the main body, and a manipulator arm pivotally coupled to the main body. The drive system comprising right and left driven track assemblies mounted on right and left sides of the main body. The manipulator arm includes a gripper, a wrist motor configured for rotating the gripper, and an inline camera in a palm of the gripper. The inline camera is mechanically configured to remain stationary with respect to the manipulator arm while the wrist motor rotates the gripper.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: FLIR DETECTION, INC.
    Inventors: Annan Michael Mozeika, Timothy R. Ohm, Christopher Thomas Brown
  • Patent number: 10910968
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a motor drive device and a motor drive system for improving a control stability despite an imbalance in zero crossing points in a sensorless motor of which position of a rotor is estimated by a counter electromotive force. The motor drive device includes: a position detector configured to detect a rotational position of a rotor of a motor by detecting a plurality of zero crossing points of a counter electromotive force induced in the motor; and a controller configured to control the motor by estimating a phase change timing based on a time interval between a current zero crossing point and a previous zero crossing point of a same state as the current zero crossing point among the plurality of zero crossing points detected by the position detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: KOREA ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE
    Inventors: Joonsung Park, Junhyuk Choi, Jinhong Kim, Byongjo Hyon, Yongsu Noh, Dongmyoung Joo
  • Patent number: 10892701
    Abstract: A drive system includes a three-phase motor having a shaft, a first three-phase stator winding which is to be connected to a three-phase AC voltage grid, a second three-phase stator winding which is to be connected to the three-phase AC voltage grid in such a way that a second stator rotating field rotating in opposition results with respect to a first stator rotating field which is generated by means of the first stator winding, and a rotor winding system which is mechanically coupled in a rotationally fixed manner to the shaft. The drive system further includes at least one inverter which is mechanically coupled in a rotationally fixed manner to the shaft and which is electrically coupled to the rotor winding system, wherein the at least one inverter is configured to generate actuation signals for the rotor winding system such that a first rotor rotating field and a second rotor rotating field rotating in opposition to the first rotor rotating field are generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Lenze Drives GmbH
    Inventors: Andreas Tolksdorf, Dennis Steup
  • Patent number: 10892691
    Abstract: A control circuit for a motor has a driving state and a braking state and includes a driving branch and a braking branch. The driving branch includes a branch formed by a stator winding and a rotor. The braking branch includes a branch formed by the stator winding, a braking switch, and an electrical energy storage component. The electrical energy storage component is configured to provide an electrical energy to the braking branch. When the motor is in the braking state, if the braking branch is detected as short-circuited, the connection between the stator winding and the rotor of the driving branch is turned on. Further provided is a power tool including the above control circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Nanjing Chervon Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Junya Duan, Shilei Sun, Zhibin Xie, Yang Yang
  • Patent number: 10886868
    Abstract: A motor control apparatus includes an inverter comprising switching elements, current detection means for detecting a phase current value output from the inverter to each phase of a three-phase AC motor, conversion means for converting the phase current value into a digital AD conversion value, and modulation means for comparing a phase voltage command value based on the AD conversion value from the conversion means with a PWM counter value generated using a timer operating at predetermined cycles to generate a PWM signal and outputting the generated PWM signal to the inverter to thereby switch the switching elements of the inverter and control the three-phase AC motor. The conversion means outputs the AD conversion value acquired by converting the phase current value at a timing when a rectangular width of a rectangular wave of a phase voltage value corresponding to the PWM counter value is long.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Akira Hatano, Yu Sasaki, Yoshihiro Okumatsu, Hiroyuki Iyama, Yuki Nomura
  • Patent number: 10886870
    Abstract: A fault communication system includes a system controller and a plurality of devices. Each one of the plurality of devices includes a single fault terminal. A fault bus consisting of only a single wire coupled to the system controller and the plurality of devices is also included. The fault bus is coupled to provide multidirectional multi-fault group communication between the plurality of devices and the system controller. The single fault terminal of each one of the plurality of devices includes is coupled to the fault bus to provide the multidirectional multi-fault group communication between the plurality of devices and the system controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: Power Integrations, Inc.
    Inventors: Stefan S. Baurle, Mingming M. Mao
  • Patent number: 10879819
    Abstract: An error detector generates a position error value ERR that corresponds to a difference between a position instruction value P_REF indicative of a target position of a rotor based on a clock signal CLK and a position detection value P_FB indicative of the current position of the rotor based on pulse signals EN_A and EN_B received from an encoder. A feedback controller generates a torque instruction value T_REF such that a position error value ERR approaches zero. The driving IC is capable of switching modes between a rotational driving control mode and a holding mode. Control characteristics set for the feedback controller are switched according to switching between the rotational driving control mode and the holding mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: ROHM CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroki Hashimoto, Masanori Tsuchihashi
  • Patent number: 10873283
    Abstract: An actuator driving device includes: first and second half bridge circuits driven according to modulated drive signals having an inverted relationship, generates a drive voltage for an actuator by switching a DC voltage, and outputs the drive voltage to the actuator; a current detection resistor which generates a current detection signal corresponding to current flowing through a series circuit including first and second switching elements and a series circuit including third and fourth switching elements; a hold circuit which holds the current detection signal from the current detection resistor and generates an output signal; a comparator which compares the output signal with a target amplitude signal to generate a comparison result signal; a multiplier which multiplies the comparison result signal and the drive signal to generate a multiplication result signal; and a PWM modulator which performs PWM modulation according to the multiplication result signal to generate a modulated drive signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Takaaki Gyoten
  • Patent number: 10862418
    Abstract: A power conversion device includes first and second inverters connectable to at least one of first and second coil groups, a first separation relay circuit connected to the first inverter, a second separation relay circuit connected to the second inverter, a third separation relay circuit connected between the first separation relay circuit and the first coil group, a fourth separation relay circuit connected between the second separation relay circuit and the second coil group, and n connection lines to, for each phase, connect n nodes between the first and third separation relay circuits and n nodes between the second and fourth separation relay circuits, where n is an integer of 3 or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignee: NIDEC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Ahmad Ghaderi
  • Patent number: 10855213
    Abstract: A motor driver device includes: a detector that detects a polarity inversion timing of a current flowing through a coil of a predetermined phase of a motor; a drive control signal generator that generates a pulse-width-modulated or pulse-density-modulated drive control signal for each phase based on the detection result; and a drive voltage supply that supplies a drive voltage corresponding to the drive control signal to a corresponding coil, wherein the drive control signal generator includes a prediction processor configured to set a detection prediction interval based on two or more previously detected polarity inversion timings, and executes a frequency variable control to set a variable target frequency to be higher in the detection prediction interval than outside the detection prediction interval, the variable target frequency being a frequency of the pulse-width-modulated drive control signal or a reciprocal of a minimum pulse width of the pulse-density-modulated drive control signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: Rohm Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hisashi Sugie
  • Patent number: 10848091
    Abstract: A motor assembly includes a motor, a control circuit to generate a control signal, a motor driving circuit to cause a current to flow in the motor based on the control signal, a storage to store a first identifier uniquely identifying itself and a second identifier uniquely identifying another motor assembly within the communications network, and a communication circuit. The communication circuit transmits a data frame, in which the first identifier indicates a transmitting end, the second identifier indicates a receiving end, and a request are stored. The communication circuit receives from the other motor assembly a data frame including the second identifier indicating a transmitting end, the first identifier indicating a receiving end, and a request. In response the communication circuit transmits a data frame including the second identifier indicating a receiving end added thereto and the first identifier indicating a transmitting end added thereto.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: NIDEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Motoki Sato, Tetsuya Tabuchi
  • Patent number: 10840841
    Abstract: A control device for a power conversion device according to an embodiment includes a drive control unit outputting a control signal based on a drive quantity command value, a drive quantity adjustment unit calculating the drive quantity command value based on a torque command for the motor, an estimated value of a stator magnetic flux of the motor, and a reference value of the stator magnetic flux of the motor, a magnetic flux observer calculating the estimated value of the stator magnetic flux of the motor, and a current observer smoothing the estimated value of the stator magnetic flux on the basis of time history data of the calculated estimated value of the stator magnetic flux, and calculating an estimated value of a current flowing through a stator winding of the motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignees: TMEIC Corporation, TOSHIBA MITSUBISHI-ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yang Xu, Paul Bixel, Chikara Morito
  • Patent number: 10829146
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a motor in which a failure has occurred in a vehicle steering system. A vehicle motor control apparatus according to an embodiment may include a motor failure sensor configured to determine whether a failure has occurred in a motor based on information of a current flowing in each phase of the motor provided in a vehicle steering system, and a motor controller configured to apply a demagnetization current to the motor for permanently demagnetizing the magnet in the motor when the failure has occurred in the motor. Accordingly, a driver is capable of performing stable steering even when the motor has failed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: MANDO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Tae Sik Kim