The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 12, 1997
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1994
Francesco Carobolante, Scotts Valley, CA (US);
Karl Schlager, Campbell, CA (US);
Li-Hsin D Lu, San Jose, CA (US);
SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, Inc., Carrollton, TX (US);
Abstract
A motor drive system, and method for operating the same, which includes current mirror load current sensing, is disclosed. Sensed current is used in the well known manner to control the low side drive of the motor. The disclosed motor system operates in a bipolar mode on startup, and in a unipolar mode during full speed operation. In unipolar mode, a current mirror transistor is provided to sense the load current through the center tap drive transistor in a continuous manner. Ripple in the sensed current is avoided, as the center tap drive transistor is not commutated during motor operation in unipolar mode. In bipolar mode, current mirrors are provided for both of the high side and low side drive transistors in each leg, with the currents summed for each coil at a sum node, and with the summed current applied to a cumulative sum node; the summed current never drops to zero, as only one drive transistor changes in each phase change in the commutation sequence.