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:
Mar. 06, 2007
Filed:
Jan. 31, 2006
Applicant:
Jim D. Childers, Missouri City, TX (US);
Inventor:
Jim D. Childers, Missouri City, TX (US);
Assignee:
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01R 15/12 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
A method and motor controller for sensing motor winding current. An FET drive transistor has its ON resistance periodically increased to about five times the normal ON resistance for short sensing intervals during motor drive. An analog-to-digital converting senses the voltage across this FET during the sensing intervals. The resulting digital signal is used to calculate motor current. The time at high ON resistance is much less than the time at normal. The ON resistance can be changed using two FETs or one FET with gate fingers over differing parts of the channel region.