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:
Jun. 06, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 13, 1998
Marcus M Martins, Richardson, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
An electric motor (12) has multiple phase inputs (22, 24, 26). Each phase input can be coupled to a supply voltage (VM) by a high side driver transistor (40, 46, 52), or can be coupled to ground by a low side driver transistor (42, 48 54). A control circuit (30) turns each of the high and low side driver transistors on and off according to a predetermined sequence. As each of the low side driver transistors is turned off, another low side driver transistor is turned on in a manner so that a current through the low side driver transistor which is being turned off decreases at a linear rate, and so that a current through the low side driver transistor which is being turned on simultaneously increases at the same linear rate.