Stmicroelectronics S.r.l.

Stmicroelectronics (grenoble 2) Sas

Giovanni Moselli

Giuseppe D'Angelo

Nicola Cesario

Paolo Amato

Francesco Pirozzi

Ferdinando Taglialatela-Scafati

Maurizio Di Meglio

Francesco Carpentieri

Mario Lavorgna

Stefano Baratto

Virginia Clemente

Andre Roger

Francesco Giuffré

Umberto Macri

Carolina Verde

Vincenzo Buccino

Fabio Marchio′

Ferdinando Taglialatela

Electric circuit for estimating the angular position of a rotor of an electric motor, including: a sensing module configured to receive at least one electric signal representative of a drive current of the electric motor and to generate a measurement signal indicative of a switching of the at least one electric signal and a switching index indicative of the type of switching, rising or falling, of the at least one electric signal; and a computing module configured to supply, from the measurement signal and switching index a position signal representative of an angular position of the electric motor rotor.

Electric circuit and method for estimating the angular position of a rotor of an electric motor, and device for controlling an electric motor

An embodiment is a method, and related system, to implement the square root extraction operation, which grants a 32 bits precision, which has high execution speed and is able to process a decimal radicand. An embodiment relates to a method for controlling an electric machine, comprising the detection of the value of at least one electrical quantity characterizing the machine operation and processing the detected value of said electrical quantity. The control method controls the machine operation on the basis of this processing. In particular the processing of the detected value of the electrical quantity comprises calculating a square root of a radicand value related to the detected value of electrical quantities. The calculation of the square root includes: calculating an approximated value of the square root, having a first precision, and then calculating a corrective value and combining said approximated value with said corrective value to obtain a square root value having a second precision greater than the first precision.

Method and system for controlling electrical machines

A control circuit controls an electric motor and includes: a measuring device configured to measure a first phase current of the motor and provide a corresponding first analog signal; an analog-to-digital converter structured to convert the first analog signal into a first digital signal; a conversion module for generating a first converted digital signal representative of the first digital signal expressed in a rotating reference system; a node structured to compare the first converted digital signal into a first reference signal and generate a first error signal; and a measure control circuit structured to provide a timing signal of the analog-to-digital converter depending on the first error signal and a time delay introduced by the measuring device.

Control circuit of an electric motor with a measure delay compensation and motor system comprising the circuit

A method of sensing the air/fuel ratio in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine that may be easily implemented by a respective low-cost device includes a pressure sensor and a learning machine that generates a sensing signal representing the air/fuel ratio by processing the waveform of the pressure in at least one cylinder of the engine. In practice, the learning machine extracts characteristic parameters of the waveform of the pressure and as a function of a certain number of them generates the sensing signal.

Method and associated device for sensing the air/fuel ratio of an internal combustion engine

A method for estimating values assumed at a certain instant of each period by currents flowing respectively in two distinct windings of a poly-phase load controlled in a space vector modulation (SVM) mode, using a same measuring device, may include coupling the measuring device to the first winding and measuring a current flowing therethrough with an anticipation from the certain instant smaller than or equal to an SVM half-period. The method may also include coupling the measuring device to the second winding, measuring a current flowing therethrough at the certain instant, coupling the measuring device to the first winding, and measuring a current flowing therethrough with a delay equal to the anticipation. The method may also include estimating a value assumed at the certain instant by the current flowing through the first winding based upon the two measured values with the anticipation and with the delay respectively.

Method and related device for estimating two currents flowing simultaneously through respective windings of a poly-phase electrical load driven in SVM mode

A method is for estimating an angular position of a rotor of a motor having position sensors along the circumference of a stator and generating digital signals that switch each time the rotor crosses certain angular positions. The method includes storing rotor angular positions at every digital signal switching, and determining for each rotor revolution a time interval elapsed between a current and a precedent switching edge of the signal generated. The method also includes estimating the angular position during a current rotor revolution by identifying which position sensor generated the last detected switching edge. The corresponding angular position and the time interval elapsed between two consecutive rotor crossings, through a same angular position, correspond to a sum between the angular position and a product between a fraction of the time interval elapsed from the corresponding precedent switching edge multiplied by 360&#xb0; and a number of polar pairs.

Method and device for estimating the angular position of the rotor of a brushless motor

There is a method of estimating values of winding currents, at an instant of a period, in a winding of a load, controlled in space vector modulation mode through symmetrical control phases. The winding is cyclically coupled between two supply lines through respective switches. A measuring device is alternately coupled to the supply lines. A current of one supply line, with anticipation smaller than or equal to half of the period with respect to the instant and chosen so the current is equal in amplitude to the winding current, and a current of the supply line with delay equal to the anticipation with respect to the instant, is measured. The winding current is estimated at the instant based upon the supply line currents. A threshold interval is fixed between consecutive switching edges of control phases of the winding and another control phase of the switching period wherein current is measured.

Method and related device for estimating the currents flowing in windings of a poly-phase electrical load at a certain instant

A control circuit is for an electric power plant including an asynchronous generator of an AC voltage, a motor to rotate a rotor of the asynchronous generator as a function of a first control signal of a developed motor torque, and a bank of capacitors coupled to the asynchronous generator and having a total capacitance varying as function of a second control signal. The control circuit may include a monitor circuit to monitor at least one parameter of the AC voltage, and a control signal generator circuit cooperating with the monitor circuit to generate the first and second control signals by soft-computing techniques both as a function of the frequency and of a representative value of an amplitude of the AC voltage to make the AC voltage have a desired amplitude and frequency.

Method and circuit for controlling an electric power plant

A knocking presence evaluation circuit in an internal combustion engine having a pressure sensor facing a combustion chamber for each cylinder in the engine and suitable to produce a pressure signal, the circuit having an input terminal; a processing block connected by the input terminal to the pressure sensor and receiving the pressure signal, the processing block performing a processing of the pressure signal for isolating oscillations and generating a derived pressure signal; an acquisition block connected to the processing block and receiving the derived pressure signal and generating first and second measure signals, respectively corresponding to a number and a total duration of digital pulses, from the derived pressure signal; and a soft-computing block connected to the acquisition block and receiving the first and second measure signals and outputting a knocking intensity index, calculated by soft-computing techniques, starting from the first and second measure signals.

Knocking presence evaluation circuit for an internal combustion engine, knocking identification and control system and corresponding pressure signal processing method

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S. Arpino, Italy

Giovanni Moselli