FREDERIC PASCAL BONVIN
Pilots at Wildrose Pl, Longmont, CO

2010005, Mar 4, 2010

Sep 2, 2009

12/552989

Frederic BONVIN - Longmont CO, US
Ezio GALBIATI - Agnadello, IT

STMICROELECTRONICS, INC. - Carrollton TX

H02P 6/10, H02P 6/08

31840017, 31840023

An embodiment of a motor controller includes a motor driver and a signal conditioner. The motor driver is operable to generate a motor-coil drive signal having a first component at a first frequency, and the signal conditioner is coupled to the motor driver and is operable to alter the first component. For example, if the first component of the motor-coil drive signal causes the motor to audibly vibrate (e.g., “whine”), then the signal conditioner may alter the amplitude or phase of the first component to reduce the vibration noise to below a threshold level.

2010012, May 20, 2010

Nov 18, 2009

12/620929

Frederic BONVIN - Longmont CO, US

STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Carrollton TX

H02P 6/14, H02P 3/12

31840028, 318379

A drive circuit having asymmetrical drivers. In an embodiment, a brushless DC motor may be driven by a drive circuit having three high-side MOSFETs and three low-side MOSFETs. A driver controller turns the MOSFETs on and off according to a drive algorithm such that phase currents are injected into motor coils to be driven. The high-side MOSFETs may be sized differently than the low-side MOSFETs. As such, when a MacDonald waveform (or similar drive algorithm) is used to drive the phases of the motor, less power may be required during disk spin-up because the MOSFETs that are on more (e.g., the low-side MOSFETs with a MacDonald waveform) may be sized larger than the MOSFETs that are on less (e.g., the high-side MOSFETs). In this manner, less power is dissipated in the larger size MOSFETs that are on more than the others.

8310192, Nov 13, 2012

Oct 16, 2009

12/580748

Frederic Bonvin - Longmont CO, US

STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Coppell TX

H02P 1/04, H02P 3/00

318471, 318254, 31840013, 31840035, 360 7303

In BLDC motors driven via sensorless techniques, the BEMF signals in the motor coils may be used to detect the position of the motor such that speed of the motor may be accurately controlled. When detecting the BEMF signals, however, small perturbations occur which negatively impact the rotational torque of the motor. As a result, torque ripple may occur at regular intervals which may result in inefficiencies as well as audible noise. In various embodiments as described herein, the sampling of the BEMF signals may be done so at pseudo-random intervals such that the overall spectral energy that presents from the BEMF detections may be reduced at specific frequencies (such as fundamental sampling frequencies and harmonics thereof) and spread out over many more frequencies. Thus, despite the overall spectral energy being the same, the amplitude of any given frequency is lower as the sampling of the BEMF is less periodic.

2008018, Jul 31, 2008

Jan 25, 2008

12/020319

Frederic Bonvin - Longmont CO, US

STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Carrollton TX

H02P 6/08, H02P 6/18

31840006, 31840035, 31840024

Disk drive spindle jitter is comprised of electrical noise, error due to pair pole asymmetry, and random disk speed variances. Error caused by pair pole asymmetry can be identified and compensated for by detecting over a single rotation of a rotor a plurality of zero cross signals. These signals can be statistically analyzed over a period of a plurality of revolutions of the rotor so as to identify the systematic error caused by pair poles. Once identified, this pair pole error can be used to modify zero cross signals and/or modify commutation signal driving the disk so as to arrive at a more accurate determination of disk speed and to precisely control the speed of the disk.

2010005, Mar 4, 2010

Sep 2, 2009

12/552963

Frederic BONVIN - Longmont CO, US
Agostino MIRABELLI - Lomello, IT
Maurizio NESSI - Como, IT

STMICROELECTRONICS, INC. - Carrollton TX

H02P 6/18

31840032

An embodiment of a motor controller includes first and second supply nodes, a motor-coil node, an isolator, a motor driver, and a motor position signal generator. The isolator is coupled between the first and second supply nodes, and the motor driver is coupled to the second supply node and to the motor-coil node. The motor position signal generator is coupled to the isolator and is operable to generate, in response to the isolator, a motor-position signal that is related to a position of a motor having at least one coil coupled to the motor-coil node. By generating the motor-position signal in response to the isolator, the motor controller or another circuit may determine the at-rest or low-speed position of a motor without using an external coil-current-sense circuit.

2012011, May 10, 2012

Nov 5, 2010

12/940438

Frederic Bonvin - Longmont CO, US
Diego Armaroli - Mortara, IT

H02P 1/04

318503

Techniques and apparatus for limiting the current through a motor, such as a motor for rotating a rotatable element of a hard drive. The current can be limited based on a threshold. A first threshold value can be set for a first time period. A second threshold value can be set for a second time period in which the current through the motor rises. The second threshold value is lower than the first threshold value. A spike in the supply current upon accelerating the rotatable element of the motor can thereby be reduced or eliminated.

2011010, May 12, 2011

Nov 8, 2010

12/941366

Frederic BONVIN - Longmont CO, US
Davide Betta - Barzano, IT
Agostino Mirabelli - Lomello, IT
Andrea Di Ruzza - Roccasecca, IT

STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Carrollton TX
STMicroelectronics S.r.l. - Agrate Brianza

H02P 6/18

31840033

A system and method for determining the start position of a motor. According to an embodiment, a voltage pulse signal may be generated across a pair of windings in a motor. A current response signal will be generated and based upon the position of the motor, the response signal will be greater in one pulse signal polarity as opposed to an opposite pulse signal polarity. The response signal may be compared for s specific duration of time or until a specific integration threshold has been reached. Further, the response signal may be converted into a digital signal such that a sigma-delta circuit may smooth out glitches more easily. In this manner, the position of the motor may be determined to within 60 electrical degrees during a startup.

2011012, Jun 2, 2011

Jan 28, 2011

13/016705

Frederic Bonvin - Longmont CO, US

STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Carrollton TX

H02P 6/18

31840035

Disk drive spindle jitter is comprised of electrical noise, error due to pair pole asymmetry, and random disk speed variances. Error caused by pair pole asymmetry can be identified and compensated for by detecting over a single rotation of a rotor a plurality of zero cross signals. These signals can be statistically analyzed over a period of a plurality of revolutions of the rotor so as to identify the systematic error caused by pair poles. Once identified, this pair pole error can be used to modify zero cross signals and/or modify commutation signal driving the disk so as to arrive at a more accurate determination of disk speed and to precisely control the speed of the disk.

8471509, Jun 25, 2013

Jul 20, 2009

12/505822

Frederic Bonvin - Longmont CO, US

STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Coppell TX

H02P 6/08

31840034, 3182541, 318560, 318561

An embodiment of a circuit for maintaining voltage at a voltage bus after a power loss in a hard disk drive system. HDD systems may suddenly lose power and specific tasks, such as parking the read/write head and storing state data may be accomplished using a power generated from back EMF of a motor that is still turning. During the power loss sequence, a drive controller may drive a power chipset to regulate the voltage at a voltage bus so as to conserve power as much as possible. In this manner, the drive circuit may regulate the voltage via a drive algorithm to be just above a threshold voltage (typically 4. 4 V) while the HDD system is storing state data, but apply other algorithm for other situations, such as parking the read/write head. Various drive algorithms may be tailored to provide a specific sequence of voltage bus regulation techniques suited to specific applications.

8614859, Dec 24, 2013

Mar 31, 2010

12/751740

Ezio Galbiati - Agnadello, IT
Frederic Pascal Bonvin - Longmont CO, US

STMicroelectronics S.r.l. - Agrate Brianza
STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Carrollton TX

G11B 21/02

360 55

A method and circuit to stop a spindle motor in the absence of the external supply voltage in which the spindle motor is structured to move a hard disk provided with at least one reading or writing head moved by a voice coil motor, the spindle motor provided with a plurality of coils. The method includes rectifying the backelectromotive force of the spindle motor to produce a braking current, driving the voice coil motor with at least a portion of the braking current until the speed of the spindle motor becomes lower than a predetermined stop speed, and, after the parking of the at least one reading or writing head of the voice coil motor, stopping the spindle motor by short-circuiting the coils of the spindle motor.