Magnetic Field Sensor Or Responsive Device (e.g., Hall Element, Magneto-resistance, Etc.) Patents (Class 318/400.38)
  • Publication number: 20090315493
    Abstract: A single-phase brushless forward and reverse turn control circuit device is provided, in which a PCB is provided on a stator unit and a rotor unit that are mutually encircled and spaced from each other. On the PCB, a microprocessor unit, a logic unit, a drive unit, and at least one sensor are provided. The sensor is provided in the outer circumference of PCB to sense the variation of a magnetic pole of the rotor unit and then transmit it back to the logic unit and supply it to the drive unit, making the drive unit control the current passing through the coils and then the stator unit generate an opposite magnetic field, the rotor unit thereby smoothly running forward or reversely.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Publication date: December 24, 2009
    Inventor: Hsia-Yuan HSU
  • Publication number: 20090302793
    Abstract: An n-phase brushless motor device includes: a magnet 16 for magnetic pole position detection having a number of poles twice as many as that of a rotor and fixed to a face perpendicular to a rotation axis of the rotor; n main Hall elements 18a arranged opposite to the magnet, for detecting a magnetic pole position of the rotor; n sub Hall elements 18b arranged in such a way as to have an offset in a direction of a periphery with respect to the main Hall elements, for detecting the magnetic pole position; and a control unit for counting “2” according to a change in an output pattern of the main Hall elements, for counting “1” when the output pattern is the same as that of the sub Hall elements at a predetermined timing, and for controlling a rotation of the rotor according to these counted values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2007
    Publication date: December 10, 2009
    Inventors: Satoshi Kawamura, Aya Nishikawa
  • Publication number: 20090289593
    Abstract: A control device for an automatic transmission includes a current detecting unit for detecting motor current. The current detecting unit has a counter for counting variation number of a rotational position signal output from a rotational position detecting unit for detecting the rotational position of a motor, and an electrical angle 180° judging unit for judging rotation of electrical angle 180° of the motor. A voltage occurring in a current detecting resistor is sampled at a timing of each integral multiple of the electrical angle of 180° judged in the electrical angle 180° judging unit, and rotation of the motor is controlled in accordance with the difference between motor target current calculated in the motor target current calculating unit and motor current.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2009
    Publication date: November 26, 2009
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takeru OKABE, Shiro YONEZAWA, Nozomu KAMIOKA, Tomohisa SHODA, Masaki HORII, Yasufumi OGAWA, Osamu ISHIKAWA
  • Publication number: 20090284201
    Abstract: Disclosed is an electric motor that includes a stator with a plurality of main poles, each of which includes a coil, and a rotor rotatable about an axis and having a magnet with magnetic poles in which N and S poles are alternating. The motor further includes a first sensor group of a plurality of magnetic sensors fixed relative to the stator, and a second sensor group of a plurality of magnetic sensors fixed relative to the stator. When operating the motor, the first sensor group can be selected so as to rotate the rotor in a first direction. The second sensor group can be selected so as to rotate the rotor in a second direction opposite to the first direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2009
    Publication date: November 19, 2009
    Inventor: Young-Chun Jeung
  • Patent number: 7589485
    Abstract: A motor control circuit comprising: a rotation control circuit configured to control rotation of a motor based on a rotation control signal for controlling rotation of the motor and a rotational position detection signal from a Hall element for detecting a rotational position of the motor; a determining circuit configured to determine whether the rotation control signal has been generated for a predetermined time period; and a Hall element control circuit configured to apply a Hall element source voltage to the Hall element when the determining circuit determines that the rotation control signal has been generated for the predetermined time period, and to stop applying the Hall element source voltage to the Hall element when the determining circuit determines that the rotation control signal has not necessarily been generated for the predetermined time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2009
    Assignees: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Sanyo Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Yoshitomi, Joji Noie, Toshiyuki Imai
  • Patent number: 7586284
    Abstract: A synchronization control system includes plural controlling object apparatuses connected through first and second wired OR lines. Each controlling object apparatus includes a function of switching an output to the first wired OR line from a first state to a second state in an odd numberth synchronization waiting state and switching an output to the second wired OR line from the first state to the second state in an even numberth synchronization waiting state. A control apparatus determines an odd numberth synchronization in response to changing of the first wired OR line from the first state to the second state when all the controlling object apparatuses enter the odd numberth synchronization waiting state, and determines an even numberth synchronization in response to changing of the second wired OR line from the first state to the second state when all the controlling object apparatuses enter the even numberth synchronization waiting state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2009
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Tadashi Akita
  • Patent number: 7579799
    Abstract: Methods and devices for determining the position and/or angular orientation of a rotating shaft. Exemplary features include a sensor module and a position determination module. Sensor module may include a plurality of Hall Effect devices (HEDs) arranged at a specified angular separation to produce a signal in response to rotation of the shaft. Position module may be responsive to sensor module to produce a converted signal, determine an error term, and produce a position estimate. Converted signal may be produced by processing the HED signals into sinusoidal reference signals having offset scale and amplitude scale factors. Error term may be determined by processing the converted signals to produce an estimated position signal. Position estimate may be produced by processing the error term. Refined position measurement may be achieved by iterative elimination of regressive differences between position estimates with minimization of absolute magnitude of error term.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2009
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Jerry D. Robichaux, John F. Bugge, Charles De Lair, Eric M. Lafontaine
  • Publication number: 20090206828
    Abstract: A failure detection apparatus for a resolver outputting a sine signal indicative of sin ? and a cosine signal indicative of cos ? according to a rotational angle ? of a rotator, includes an inspection value calculating section configured to calculate an inspection value based on at least one of the sine signal and the cosine signal; a failure detecting section configured to judge whether the resolver is in a failure state or not on the basis of the inspection value; a counting section configured to gradually increase a count value with a lapse of time when the failure detecting section is determining that the resolver is in the failure state, and configured to gradually decrease the count value with a lapse of time when the failure detecting section is determining that the resolver is not in the failure state; and a failure deciding section configured to finally decide that the resolver has caused the failure on the basis of the count value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 11, 2009
    Publication date: August 20, 2009
    Inventors: Tamotsu YAMAURA, Kenichi Hamada, Yutaka Makino
  • Patent number: 7573226
    Abstract: Provided is a motor having a combination of a plurality of coil pairs and a permanent magnet, wherein these coil pairs are supplied with an excitation signal from a drive circuit so as to be excited at alternate opposite poles, and the permanent magnet is constituted such that the plurality of polar elements is disposed to become alternating opposite poles; the drive circuit is constituted to supply an excitation signal having a prescribed frequency to the coil pairs, and relatively move the coil pairs and permanent magnet with the magnetic attraction—repulsion between the coils and permanent magnet; and the drive circuit is constituted to supply to the coil pairs a waveform signal corresponding to the pattern of the back electromotive voltage to be generated in accordance with the relative movement between the coil pairs and permanent magnet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kesatoshi Takeuchi
  • Publication number: 20090189558
    Abstract: An electric actuator motor drives an actuator leg between inner and outer limits of an actuator stroke relative to an actuator base. A controller detects when the actuator leg is at one of the inner and outer stroke limits by monitoring and comparing actuator motor power draw to known actuator motor power draw values associated with the operation of an electric actuator when its leg has reached an actuator leg stroke limit. A position sensor senses changes in the position of a monitored actuator component and provides corresponding signals to the controller. The controller calculates the position of the monitored actuator component relative to the position that the monitored actuator component was in when the actuator leg was in a predetermined home position. The controller recognizes and records the concurrent position of the monitored actuator component as indicating that the actuator leg is in the home position whenever the leg reaches a stroke limit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2008
    Publication date: July 30, 2009
    Applicant: Innovative Design Solutions
    Inventors: Robert Ford, Shawn Haley, Mark Woloszyk, John Manfreda
  • Publication number: 20090179514
    Abstract: The single-phase brushless motor according to one aspect of the present invention includes a coil array having a plurality of magnetic coils 11-14; a magnet array having a plurality of permanent magnets 31-34; a magnetic sensor 40 for detecting relative position of the magnet array and the coil array; and a drive control circuit that, utilizing the output signal SSA of the magnetic sensor, generates application voltage for driving the coil array with a single-phase drive signal. The coil array includes a magnetic member 20. This magnetic member 20 is constituted such that, with the single-phase brushless motor at a stop, the centers of the permanent magnets 31-34 come to a stop at locations offsetted from the centers of the magnetic coils 11-14, due to attraction of the magnetic member 20 by the magnet array.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 17, 2007
    Publication date: July 16, 2009
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kesatoshi Takeuchi, Mamoru Sugimoto
  • Patent number: 7541760
    Abstract: A method capable of controlling brushless DC motor detects the magnetic pole positions of the rotor with a Hall component to produce a Hall signal correspondingly, generates a PWM signal based on an external control signal with a PWM generator, controls a switch circuit based on the PWM signal and the Hall signal with a driver such that switched output is capable of being sent to the current phase of the stator coils for rotating the rotor. Further, while the Hall signal is detected to be level-switched, the external control signal level increases or decreases corresponding to change of the level of the Hall signal with respect to the duty cycle of the PWM signal being controlled to increase to the preset duty cycle from 0 or to decrease to 0 from the preset duty cycle for eliminating both sharp wave in the current during switching and noise.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2009
    Assignee: Sentelic Corporation
    Inventors: Jao-Ching Lin, Lin-Abel Chu, You-Kang Lin, Cheng-Chung Tsau, Chung-Yi Shen
  • Publication number: 20090128084
    Abstract: A controllable motor includes a rotor. A first stator winding set is operable, upon being energized, to generate and apply a first torque to the rotor. A second stator winding set independent of the first stator winding set is operable, upon being energized, to generate and apply a second torque to the rotor. A motor control is coupled to the first and second stator winding sets. The motor control is operable to selectively energize one of the first or second stator winding sets to thereby generate and apply one of the first or second torques to the rotor, and simultaneously energize both the first and second stator winding sets to thereby generate and apply a third torque greater than the first or the second torque.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2007
    Publication date: May 21, 2009
    Applicant: HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL, INC.
    Inventors: Andrew T. Johnson, Casey Hanlon
  • Publication number: 20090128075
    Abstract: A stator of a motor includes a stator core formed of a plurality of teeth and an annular yoke connecting the teeth to each other, and windings wound on the teeth. A rotor of the motor confronts the stator while supported rotatably, and includes a rotor magnet, a rotor core, and a position sensing magnet. The motor further includes a position sensor for sensing a rotational position of the rotor and a circuit board for supplying an electric current to the windings in response to the rotational position of the rotor. The rotor magnet, the rotor core, and the position sensing magnet are integrated into one unit, which is mounted on a shaft of the rotor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2006
    Publication date: May 21, 2009
    Applicant: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hideharu Hiwaki, Hiroshi Murakami, Kiyomi Kawamura
  • Publication number: 20090108785
    Abstract: In an AC-input type brushless DC motor, a current control circuit controls an average current of an inverter circuit, a current indication circuit makes addition or subtraction, with respect to a reference current value, to the average current to be supplied to the inverter circuit such that the average current falls into a correlation indicated by a correlation indication circuit. The foregoing structure allows setting speed-torque characteristics of the brushless DC motor such that the torque increases at a higher rpm of the motor. The characteristics are good for driving a fan.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2007
    Publication date: April 30, 2009
    Applicant: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventor: Masayuki Takada
  • Publication number: 20090102406
    Abstract: A motor control circuit comprising: a rotation control circuit configured to control rotation of a motor based on a rotation control signal for controlling rotation of the motor and a rotational position detection signal from a Hall element for detecting a rotational position of the motor; a determining circuit configured to determine whether the rotation control signal has been generated for a predetermined time period; and a Hall element control circuit configured to apply a Hall element source voltage to the Hall element when the determining circuit determines that the rotation control signal has been generated for the predetermined time period, and to stop applying the Hall element source voltage to the Hall element when the determining circuit determines that the rotation control signal has not necessarily been generated for the predetermined time period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2008
    Publication date: April 23, 2009
    Applicants: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Sanyo Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Yoshitomi, Joji Noie, Toshiyuki Imai
  • Patent number: 7521885
    Abstract: In a method for improving commutation of the at least one phase (Pi) of an electric motor (1), the commutation angle (alpha) of the one or more phases (Pi) is continuously varied in accordance with the rotary frequency (f) of the electromagnetic energizing field (F) of the electric motor (1) and/or in accordance with an adjustable variable (S) which is characteristic of the driving power. A device (9) suitable for carrying out the method has a frequency converter 5) and a control unit (6) controlling the same and adapted to carry out the method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Assignee: Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, Wuerzburg
    Inventor: Johannes Schwarzkopf
  • Publication number: 20090009118
    Abstract: The drive control circuit for an electric motor is provided. The drive control circuit includes: an original drive signal generator that generates an original drive signal; an excitation interval setter that is able, for each half cycle of respective length ? in each 2? excitation cycle of the original drive signal, to arbitrarily set excitation intervals during which to excite coils of the electric motor to any one of a plurality of intervals which include at least either one of a symmetrical interval centered on a center of each half-cycle and an unsymmetrical interval; and a drive signal shaping circuit that generates a drive signal for driving the electric motor, by validating the original drive signal during the excitation intervals and invalidating the original drive signal during non-excitation intervals other than the excitation interval.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2008
    Publication date: January 8, 2009
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kesatoshi TAKEUCHI, Isamu SEJIMO, Takafumi SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20080309269
    Abstract: A device controller system incorporates an inexpensive Hall element to detect motion of a brushless DC motor. A magnet, which is part of a motor rotor, passes by the Hall element producing a Hall voltage each rotation. The Hall voltage is coupled through an interface port to a comparator within a process controller. A microprocessor within the process controller calculates a control response based on a comparator output signal. The interface port is rapidly configured to provide signals produced from the control response as output to device drivers on the same input-output pins that receive the Hall voltage. The device drivers produce a current through fan coils producing an update in the magnetic field of each motor phase which updates the speed of the fan according to programming within the process controller. Rapid configuring and reconfiguring of the interface port allows all necessary components of the controller system to be used with a single rotational commutation cycle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2008
    Publication date: December 18, 2008
    Inventor: Marvin L. Kausch
  • Patent number: 7466092
    Abstract: A multiphase motor includes a fixed part or stator energized by electric coils and a mobile part or rotor including N pairs of poles radially magnetized in alternate directions, N being not less than 4 while being other than a multiple of 3, and the stator including P×9 identical poles spaced apart by 40°/P, the stator poles being assembled consecutively by three so as to define a phase with a W-shaped circuit, assembling three consecutive stator poles, the central stator pole bearing the winding of the phase. At least one element for detecting the position of the rotor is arranged in a common stage with the stator poles, in a housing substantially equidistant between two consecutive stator poles not belonging to a common phase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2008
    Assignee: Societe Industrielle de Soncebox, S.A.
    Inventor: Daniel Prudham
  • Patent number: 7462999
    Abstract: A permanent magnet brushless (PMBL) servo motor test apparatus and method allow testing of a motor in place. A set of static and dynamic tests is performed to determine proper motor operation of armature windings and rotor feedback devices. The test system of the present invention displaces the motor drive system. The test system comprises an armature driver, a feedback device input, and a system controller. The armature windings of the motor-under-test are driven in a polarity sequence according to a test sequence, whereby the rotor is driven in a series of rotations. Angle feedback is tested at a plurality of said rotations. Rotor velocity outputs are tested during said rotations. Armature current and voltage are determined at a plurality of said rotations and winding balance is tested. Said power switch is also operative to apply a voltage between the armature windings and the motor case to test for fault current flow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2008
    Assignee: Mitchell Electronics, Inc
    Inventors: Lawrence Hardy Mitchell, Stuart Glen Mitchell
  • Publication number: 20080272722
    Abstract: A brushless DC motor drive circuit includes a drive unit and a transient current suppression circuit. The drive unit comprises a Hall component, a drive component, a first transistor and a second transistor. The Hall component detects the position of a rotor of the DC motor and transmits digital command signals to the drive component; the drive component further generates two complementary digital command signals; and the first and second transistors connect with the drive component respectively. The transient current suppression circuit comprises a first auxiliary transistor and a second auxiliary transistor, wherein the first auxiliary transistor receives one of the complementary digital command signals different from the other one received by the first transistor and the second auxiliary transistor receives the other one of the complementary digital command signals different from the one received by the second transistor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2007
    Publication date: November 6, 2008
    Inventors: Alex Horng, Chung-Kne Cheng, Shih-Chang Hsu
  • Patent number: 7446498
    Abstract: A method and apparatus perform control. A control method according to one embodiment accesses a Hall effect signal; obtains an error signal relating to a system parameter using the Hall effect signal and a reference signal for the system parameter; obtains a calculated signal for the system parameter using the error signal; and utilizes the calculated signal as a new reference signal for the system parameter, for a next iteration of the obtaining steps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2008
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Louis Cheng, Ming Ma
  • Publication number: 20080265816
    Abstract: The brushless electric machine includes a first drive member (30U) having a plurality of permanent magnets (32U); a second drive member (10) having a plurality of electromagnetic coils and capable of movement relative to the first drive member (30U); and a third drive member (30L) disposed at the opposite side from the first drive member (30U) with the second drive member (10) therebetween, and having a fixed relative positional relationship with respect to the first drive member (30U). The second drive member (10) has magnetic sensors (40A, 40B) for detecting relative position of the first and second drive members; and a control circuit for carrying out control of the brushless electric machine utilizing the output signals of the magnetic sensors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2008
    Publication date: October 30, 2008
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kesatoshi TAKEUCHI, Mamoru SUGIMOTO, Yojiro OKAKURA
  • Patent number: 7443119
    Abstract: A circuit and a method for controlling the rotating speed of a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor are provided, whose goal is solving the stall problem encountered by conventional BLDC motors driven by pulse width modulation (PWM). The circuit includes a closed-loop control mechanism for adjusting the duty cycle of the motor current of the BLDC motor, thus controlling the rotating speed of the motor. The closed-loop control is based on the comparison of a signal proportional to the actual rotating speed and another signal proportional to the predetermined target rotating speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2008
    Assignee: Green Mark Technology Inc.
    Inventor: Kwang-Hwa Liu
  • Publication number: 20080252239
    Abstract: A method capable of controlling brushless DC motor detects the magnetic pole positions of the rotor with a Hall component to produce a Hall signal correspondingly, generates a PWM signal based on an external control signal with a PWM generator, controls a switch circuit based on the PWM signal and the Hall signal with a driver such that switched output is capable of being sent to the current phase of the stator coils for rotating the rotor. Further, while the Hall signal is detected to be level-switched, the external control signal level increases or decreases corresponding to change of the level of the Hall signal with respect to the duty cycle of the PWM signal being controlled to increase to the preset duty cycle from 0 or to decrease to 0 from the preset duty cycle for eliminating both sharp wave in the current during switching and noise.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2007
    Publication date: October 16, 2008
    Inventors: JAO-CHING LIN, Lin-Abel Chu, You-Kang Lin, Cheng-Chung Tsau, Chung-Yi Shen
  • Publication number: 20080246424
    Abstract: The brushless motor has a first and second drive member. The first drive member is equipped with M phase coil groups each having N electromagnetic coils where M is an integer of 1 or greater and N is an integer of 1 or greater. The second drive member has a plurality of permanent magnets, and is able to move relative to the first drive member. The first drive member has 2 (M×N) magnetic body cores. Each phase electromagnetic coil is coiled on a periodically selected magnetic body core at a ratio of 1 to 2M from among the arrangement of 2 (M×N) magnetic body cores.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2008
    Publication date: October 9, 2008
    Inventors: Kesatoshi Takeuchi, Mamoru Sugimoto, Isamu Sejimo, Kazuyoshi Nakamura
  • Patent number: 7423396
    Abstract: A technique for determining an alignment error of a Hall sensor location in a brushless DC motor drive, by measuring the back EMF waveform, preferably while the motor is coasting. According to the technique, an angular offset is calculated between a selected BEMF waveform and a selected Hall signal. Such offsets are preferably calculated for each phase individually. The offsets may be advantageously stored in the motor control unit and used to adjust the output motor control signals for maximum torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2008
    Assignee: International Rectifier Corporation
    Inventor: Laird Bolt
  • Patent number: 7423394
    Abstract: System, method, and apparatus for commutating and controlling a multi-phase motor using one output rotor sensor and circuitry that measures time between rotor pole-to-pole transitions is disclosed. The exemplary system, method, and apparatus may utilize the polarity of the single-output rotor sensor and the measured time between the polarity transitions detected by the single-output rotor sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2008
    Assignee: IntelaSense, LLC
    Inventor: Mark E. Collins
  • Patent number: 7400105
    Abstract: A motor drive device having a motor drive unit, a controller, and a rotational detector. The motor drive unit drives a brushless DC motor, the brushless DC motor has a rotor. The controller produces a motor driving signal to drive the brushless DC motor. The a rotational detector detects a rotational state of the brushless DC motor to produce a rotational state signal. The controller receives the rotational state signal from the rotational detector, determines a phase-switching timing to switch a phase of the brushless DC motor based on the rotational state signal, and transmits the phase-switching timing as the motor driving signal to the motor driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2008
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tasuku Sugimoto, Hisanori Okamoto
  • Publication number: 20080048593
    Abstract: In the m phase brushless motor, n (n<m) phase magnet coil groups are provided with magnetic sensors, while the remaining (m?n) phase magnet coil groups are not provided with magnetic sensors. The drive control circuit utilizes the sensor outputs of the n magnetic sensors to generates n sets of drive signals for the n phase magnet coil groups. The drive control circuit further generates (m?n) sets of drive signals for the (m?n) phase magnet coil groups not associated with the n magnetic sensors, using one or more of the sensor outputs of the n magnetic sensors in generation of each of the (m?n) sets of drive signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2007
    Publication date: February 28, 2008
    Inventor: Kesatoshi Takeuchi