Stmicroelectronics S.r.l.

Giorgio Sciacca

Maurizio Nessi

Luca Schillaci

Ezio Galbiati

Salvatore Portaluri

Alessandro Savo

Pierandrea Savo

Luigi Eugenio Garbelli

A positioning system for a read/write head of a disk drive includes a rotatable data disk, a read/write head movable over the disk, a voice coil motor (VCM) connected to the head and a source of digital position signals. A control circuit includes means for generating a VCM control current, a sensor for sensing the VCM current and an amplifier having an inverting input connected to a reference voltage source through a resistor and to a sensor output, a non-inverting input connected to the source of digital position signals through a DAC and an output connected to an input of the drive means.

Control circuit for a hard disk drive head

A method drives a three-phase motor having first, second, and third coils. The method electrically connects the first coil to a first voltage reference and the second coil to a second voltage reference while leaving the other coil floating during a first driving phase. During a second driving phase, the first coil is electrically connected to the first voltage reference and the third coil is electrically connected to the second voltage reference while the second coil is left floating. During a transition phase that immediately follows the fast driving phase and immediately precedes the second driving phase, the second coil is electrically connected alternately to the first and second voltage references. By alternately connecting the second coil to the first second voltage references and during the transition phase, the method causes the current through the second coil to reduce to zero at a slower rate than prior methods. This enables the variations of the currents that the two phases in commutation, the second and third coils, to happen in a way that maintains their sum constant, as much as possible. This reduces the torque ripple during the phase commutations and its accompanying acoustic noise.

Silent phase commutation in a three-phase brushless DC motor

A driver circuit includes a half-bridge output stage including two transistors with a common terminal for connection as the driver output to a coil of a DC motor. Two amplifiers drive the transistors in the push-pull operation and two capacitors are connected between the driver output and one input of a respective amplifier to form feedback loops for controlling the output slew-rate. Two current generators are selectively connected to an input of either of the amplifiers through respective pairs of switches. A commutation sequencer turns on and off the switches according to a commutation program. Comparators are connected to the drive output for detecting predetermined output voltage conditions and providing the commutation sequencer with signals for conditioning the commutation program as a function of the detected voltage conditions.

Driver circuit for a polyphase DC motor with minimized voltage spikes

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Pavia, Italy

Giorgio Sciacca