Back to results
US 10,312,845 B2Granted
Method and apparatus for operating an electric motor
AssigneeArm Limited
InventorDavid Victor Pietromonaco
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus and methods are provided for operating an electric motor, comprising selectively energizing the coils of a stator having a plurality of stator teeth, each stator tooth having a said coil mounted thereon. The stator coils of a subset of the stator teeth are energized during a given time period to attract a corresponding rotor tooth into alignment with each of the stator teeth in the subset over the given time period. The stator coil of at least one stator tooth in the subset is energized during a portion of the given time period before the at least one stator tooth overlaps the corresponding rotor tooth.
Claims18
An electric motor comprising:
- a stator comprising a plurality of stator teeth, each stator tooth having a stator coil mounted thereto;
- a rotor comprising a plurality of rotor teeth, the rotor being arranged to rotate relative to said stator during operation of the electric motor such that one or more of the rotor teeth periodically overlap with one or more of the stator teeth;
- control circuitry to energise the stator coils of a subset of the stator teeth during a given time period to attract a rotor tooth into alignment with each of the stator teeth in the subset over the given time period, wherein the control circuitry is configured to commence energization of a stator coil of at least one stator tooth in the subset during a portion of the given time period prior to the at least one stator tooth completely overlapping a corresponding rotor tooth;
- and
- driver circuitry to generate pulse signals to energize said stator coils, wherein the driver circuitry comprises boost generation circuitry to energize the stator coil of the at least one stator tooth during the given time period, buck circuitry to energize the stator coil of the at least one stator tooth during a time period subsequent to the given time period, and a storage capacitor to charge responsive to energy applied to the stator coil of the at least one stator tooth during the given time period and discharge into the stator coil of the at least one stator tooth during the time period subsequent to the given time period.
2 more elements
Circuitry for an electric motor comprising:
- driver circuitry to selectively energise stator coils of a stator having a plurality of stator teeth, each stator tooth having one of said stator coils mounted thereon;
- and
- control circuitry to cause the driver circuitry to energise stator coils of a subset of the stator teeth during a given time period to attract a corresponding rotor tooth into alignment with each of the stator teeth in the subset over the given time period, wherein the control circuitry is configured to trigger the driver circuitry to commence energization of the stator coil of at least one stator tooth in the subset during a portion of the given time period prior to the at least one stator tooth completely overlapping the corresponding rotor tooth, and wherein the driver circuitry comprises boost generation circuitry to energize the at least one stator coil during the given time period, buck circuitry to energize the at least one stator coil during a time period subsequent to the given time period, and a storage capacitor to charge responsive to energy applied to the at least one stator coil during the given time period and discharge into the at least one stator coil during the time period subsequent to the given time period.
A method of operating an electric motor, comprising:
- selectively energising the coils of a stator having a plurality of stator teeth, each stator tooth having one of said coils mounted thereon, the selectively energising comprising:
- energising the stator coils of a subset of the stator teeth during a given time period to attract a corresponding rotor tooth into alignment with a stator tooth in the subset over the given time period, wherein energization of the stator coil of at least one stator tooth in the subset commences during a portion of the given time period prior to the at least one stator tooth completely overlapping the corresponding rotor tooth;
- charging a storage capacitor responsive to energy applied to the stator coil of the at least one stator tooth during the given time period;
- and
- discharging the storage capacitor into the stator coil of the at least one stator tooth during a time period subsequent to the given time period to energize the stator coil of the at least one stator tooth.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.