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:
Apr. 17, 2018
Filed:
Jun. 28, 2017
Stmicroelectronics S.r.l., Agrate Brianza, IT;
Michele Boscolo Berto, Sesto San Giovanni, IT;
Ezio Galbiati, Agnadello, IT;
Giuseppe Maiocchi, Villa Guardia, IT;
STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L., Agrate Brianza, IT;
Abstract
A driver device coupled to a winding of an electro-mechanical actuator includes: a power stage driving the winding in a discontinuous mode by alternating conduction on-phases to off-phases, and a sensor circuit sensing a voltage across the winding in an off-phase, wherein, during such an off-phase the voltage across the winding includes a residual voltage which decays to zero. The power stage drives the winding from an on-phase to an off-phase by applying to the winding a reverse current pulse to invert the direction of flow of the current through the winding and produce an oscillation of the residual voltage, whereby the residual voltage includes a zero-crossing point after the current through the winding is exhausted. The sensor circuit senses the voltage across the winding at this zero-crossing point, whereby the voltage sensed across the winding at the zero-crossing point is indicative of the back electromotive force of the winding.