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:
Nov. 28, 2017
Filed:
Apr. 15, 2015
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Dongtai Liu, Fremont, CA (US);
Evgeny Fomin, San Carlos, CA (US);
George Pieter Reitsma, Redwood City, CA (US);
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A rotational sensing system is adaptable to sensing motor rotation based on eddy current sensing. An axial target surface is incorporated with the motor rotor, and includes one or more conductive target segment(s). An inductive sensor is mounted adjacent the axial target surface, and includes one or more inductive sense coil(s), such that rotor rotation rotates the target segment(s) laterally under the sense coil(s). An inductance-to-digital converter (IDC) drives sensor excitation current to project a magnetic sensing field toward the rotating axial target surface. Sensor response is characterized by successive sensor phase cycles that cycle between Lin which a sense coil is aligned with a target segment, and Lin which the sense coil is misaligned. The number of sensor phase cycles in a rotor rotation cycle corresponds to the number of target segments. The IDC converts sensor response measurements from successive sensor phase cycles into rotational data.