Micro motor
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsStephen C. Jacobsen, Shane Olsen, Marc X. Olivier
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A thinly configured and brushless miniature DC micro motor that includes at least two substantially-flat motor cells that are aligned axially. Each motor cell comprises a stator coil having an elongate opening and passage for a rotor shaft, and a cross-polarized rotor magnet carried on the rotor shaft and received within the elongate opening. The micro motor also includes a frame substrate that fixably supports the stator coils of the motor cells while providing a bearing means for rotatably supporting the rotor shaft, so that selectively energizing one of the motor cells creates an electric current in the stator coil interacting with a magnetic field of the received rotor magnet to generate a torque between the rotor shaft and the frame substrate.
Claims8
A thinly-configured brushless DC motor comprising:
- at least two motor cells aligned end-to-end, each motor cell comprising:
- a substantially-flat stator coil having an elongate opening and passage for a rotor shaft therein;
- and
- a cross-polarized rotor magnet carried on the rotor shaft and received within the elongate opening of the stator coil;
- and
- a frame substrate fixably supporting the stator coils of the at least two motor cells and having bearing means for rotatably supporting the rotor shaft,
- wherein selectively energizing at least one motor cell creates an electric current in the stator coil interacting with a magnetic field of the received rotor magnet to generate a torque between the rotor shaft and the frame substrate.
A method of using a thinly-configured brushless DC motor comprising:
- obtaining a thinly-configured DC motor having at least two substantially-flat motor cells aligned end-to-end, each motor cell comprising:
- a stator coil supported on a frame substrate and having an elongate opening and passage for a rotor shaft therein;
- and
- a cross-polarized rotor magnet carried on the rotor shaft and received within the elongate opening;
- and
- sensing a pole position of a rotor magnet relative to the frame substrate;
- energizing at least one motor cell to create an electric current in the stator coil interacting with a magnetic field of the received rotor magnet to generate a torque between the rotor shaft and the frame substrate;
- and
- controlling a dynamic rotation of the rotor shaft by alternately driving pulses of electric current of reversed polarity through the stator coils in response to the sensed pole position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.