A motor drive device includes a motor drive circuit which drives a stepping motor provided with three coils; a switching element for controlling a path through which a current for driving at least one of the coils flows; and a driving pulse generator which outputs a driving pulse to the switching element. The driving pulse generator outputs the driving pulse to the switching element so that the current for driving at least one of the coils flows through one path.

A motor drive device includes a motor drive circuit which drives a stepping motor provided with three coils; a switching element for controlling a path through which a current for driving at least one of the coils flows; and a driving pulse generator which outputs a driving pulse to the switching element. The driving pulse generator outputs the driving pulse to the switching element so that the current for driving at least one of the coils flows through one path.

A semiconductor integrated circuit device includes: a first terminal configured to receive a first voltage; a part of a charge pump circuit configured to output a second voltage obtained by stepping down the first voltage received from the first terminal; at least a part of a linear power supply circuit configured to output a third voltage obtained by stepping down the second voltage received from the charge pump circuit; an internal circuit configured to use the third voltage received from the linear power supply circuit as a power supply voltage; a second terminal configured such that a first end of an external resistor included in the charge pump circuit is connected to the second terminal; and a third terminal configured such that a second end of the external resistor is connected to the third terminal.

A displacement device comprise a stator having a plurality of electrically conductive coils shaped to provide: a first plurality of coil traces generally elongated in a stator-x direction and distributed over at least a first portion of a first layer; a second plurality of coil traces generally elongated in a stator-y direction and distributed over at least a second portion of a second layer. The first and second portions of the first and second layers overlapping one another in a stator-z direction. The displacement device also comprises a moveable stage having one or more magnet arrays. The moveable stage is moveable relative to the stator within a two-dimensional working region. The one or more magnet arrays include a first magnet array comprising a plurality of first magnetization segments, each having a corresponding first magnetization direction. The displacement device comprises one or more amplifiers connected to drive a plurality of currents in the plurality of electrically conductive coils; and a controller configured to control the currents driven by the one or more amplifiers and to thereby cause the moveable stage to track a desired position, (x.sub.r,y.sub.r), within the working region.

Aspects of the invention provide methods and systems for moving a plurality of movable stages relative to a stator. The stator comprises a plurality of coils shaped to provide pluralities of coil trace groups where each coil trace group comprises a corresponding plurality of generally linearly elongated coil traces which extend across a stator tile. Each movable stage comprises a plurality of magnet arrays. Methods and apparatus are provided for moving the movable stages relative to the stator, where a magnet array from a first movable stage and a magnet array from a second movable stage both overlap a shared group of coil traces. For at least a portion of the time that the magnet arrays from the first and second movable stages overlap the shared group of coil traces, currents are controllably driven in the shared coil trace group based on the positions of both the first and second movable stages. The positions of the first and second movable stages may be ascertained by feedback.

A displacement device comprises a stator comprising non-parallel stator-x and stator-y elongated traces. The device comprises a moveable stage comprising a first magnet array comprising first magnetization segments linearly elongated in a stage-x direction and having magnetization directions generally orthogonal to the stage-x direction. The first magnet array comprises a first pair of adjacent first magnetization segments comprising two first magnetization segments adjacent to one another in a stage-y direction non-parallel to the stage-x direction. Each first magnetization segment in the first pair has a corresponding magnetization direction oriented at a corresponding angle .sub.n about a corresponding stage-x axis as measured from a positive stage-z direction that is generally orthogonal to both the stator-x and stator-y directions. The corresponding angle .sub.n is one of 45+n90 where n is any integer. Each first magnetization segment in the first pair has a different magnetization direction.