Microchip Technology Inc.

Atmel Nantes Sa

Karl Courtel

Systems and methods for processing sensor information obtained from a coding wheel of a motor may detect defects in the sensor information caused by contamination or damage of any of the angular step markers, index marker, and/or blank space on the tracks of the coding wheel. A step counter counts toward an overflow value representing the number of angular step markers on the coding wheel. The step counter and the index are correlated: when the overflow value is reached, if the index marker is not detected an error is raised; coincidently, when the index marker is detected, if the step counter has not reached the overflow value an error is raised. The systems and methods may be applied to bidirectionally rotating motors and other devices by detecting a change in rotational direction and switching from incrementing the angular step counter to decrementing it, and vice versa.

Detection of defects in motor position decoder system

A comparison device includes a one-threshold comparator receiving an input signal and a set value and generating a resultant signal. The comparison device further includes a sampler for sampling the resultant signal and a controller for blocking the sampler, after a switching of the input signal, as long as a timeout mechanism does not indicate that a given timeout duration has elapsed since the verification of a predetermined instability criterion.

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Reze, France

Karl Courtel