Disclosed is a camshaft or crankshaft sensor including a toothed target, a measuring cell adapted to supply a raw signal and a processor module having two modes of operation: 1) a measurement mode in which the processor module is adapted to supply an output port of the sensor a measurement signal representing the times of passage of the teeth of the target at the level of the measuring cell; and 2) a diagnostic mode in which the processor module is adapted to supply at the output port of the sensor a diagnostic signal different from the measurement signal and representing the amplitude of the raw signal. Also disclosed is a method and a module for diagnosing such a sensor.

A method of sensing a rotation speed of an encoder includes generating measurement values by a plurality of sensor elements in response to sensing a magnetic field, where the plurality of sensor elements are grouped into a first shifted pair, a central pair, and a second shifted pair; generating a first shifted differential measurement signal based on the measurement values generated by the first shifted pair, a central differential measurement signal based on the measurement values generated by the central pair, and a second shifted differential measurement signal based on the measurement values generated by the second shifted pair; and generating an output signal based on detecting the first shifted differential measurement signal, the central differential measurement signal, and the second shifted differential measurement signal crossing at least one threshold.

A position sensor device includes position sensor elements for generating analog sense signals. A digitization circuit is provided for a digital signal representative of the input phase based on the analog sense signals and a digital processing unit. An output signal is indicative of the position based on the first output of the processing unit. The processing unit comprises an error signal generator for computing an error signal indicative of a phase difference between the digital signal and a feedback signal. A digital filter filters the error signal to generate the first output. A feedback path provides the feedback signal based on the first output and a filter selector to select a filter to be applied from different filters. At least one input on which a common filter circuit operates is scaled differently for each of the different filters to select different filter bandwidths.

There is provided an interpolation circuit of an optical encoder including a phase shifter circuit, two multiplexers, two digital circuits and four comparators. The phase shifter circuit receives signals sequentially have a 90 degrees phase shift and outputs multiple phase shifted signals. Each of the two multiplexers receives a half of the multiple phase shifted signals and outputs two pairs of phase shifted signals, each pair having 180 degrees phase difference, respectively to two comparators connected thereto. Each of the two digital circuits controls the corresponding multiplexer to select the two pairs of phase shifted signals from the half of the multiple phase shifted signals.

An encoder comprises first and second sensors which reads first and second tracks, the first and second sensors being arranged in a radial direction to face each other, and a processor which generates a first position signal based on first and second periodic signals based on a signal obtained by reading the first and second tracks by the first sensor, and generates a second position signal based on third and fourth periodic signals based on a signal obtained by reading the first and second tracks by the second sensor, wherein the processor generates an absolute position signal indicating an absolute position of at least one of the scale, the first sensor, or the second sensor based on the first and second position signals and the first and third periodic signals.

A method for determining an angular position of a rotating component is disclosed. A sensor system is positioned at a radial distance from an axis of rotation of the rotating component. A magnetic ring is arranged fixedly and concentrically on the rotating component, generating a magnetic field that changes with respect to the sensor system. The sensor system detects the magnetic field in which a signal is captured and evaluated with respect to the angular position. Errors in the measurement of the angular position can be corrected. The signal captured by the sensor system is evaluated with respect to the amplitude information of the magnetic field. A correction parameter is determined from the amplitude information, and an angle error is of the angular position is determined based on the correction parameter. The angle error is used to correct the angular position.

A control system in which an encoder and a controller are connected by serial communication. The encoder includes a data transmission unit configured to: embed, in serial data, position information which is information related to a position of a detection object, and position information generation timing information that indicates a timing at which the position information is generated; and transmit to the controller the serial data. The controller includes a correction unit configured to correct, based on the position information and the position information generation timing information received from the encoder, the position information of the detection object.

A method of detecting a vibration comprises determining a vibration flag has been set during a running mode, entering a vibration mode, providing direction information for a target object during the vibration mode of the magnetic field sensor, holding onto positive peak values and negative peak values of the magnetic field signal during the vibration mode of the magnetic field sensor, and returning to the running mode after receiving at least two clock cycles of the magnetic field signal with no further vibration flags set.

An apparatus for determining an item of position information relating to a position of a magnetic field transducer relative to a position sensor. The position sensor is designed to generate at least one periodic measurement signal when the magnetic field transducer moves relative to the position sensor. A processing unit of the apparatus is designed to determine the position information based on a respective measurement signal value of a respective periodic measurement signal using a calibration function assigned to the respective periodic measurement signal. The assigned calibration function represents the respective periodic measurement signal using a Fourier series having a respective plurality of Fourier coefficients which differ from zero and are of an order greater than zero. The processing unit is designed to at least approximately solve the assigned calibration function for the respective measurement signal value in order to determine the position information.

A motor drive device enabling efficient position control at a low cost is provided. The motor drive device includes a position detection unit configured to detect a current position of an object to be driven by a motor and a motor control unit configured to calculate an output control amount for the motor based on a deviation between the current position and a target position of the object to be driven by the motor while changing an advance angle in a rotational phase of the motor according to the output control amount when the advance angle is within a predetermined advance angle range in the rotational phase of the motor and changing a drive voltage of the motor with the advance angle fixed when the advance angle is outside the predetermined advance angle range.