CURRENT COLLECTORLESS DC MOTOR

A one-phase motor has two conductors energized alternately via respective pnp and npn transistors and from the same output of a Hall-IC, without polarity inversion. When the Hall signal goes high the first transistor goes conductive and the second non-conductive, or vice versa. Capacitive delay elements slow down the switching-ON and -OFF of the two transistors. The capacitive delay elements have the undesired effect that, in response to the self-same change in the value of the Hall signal, the signal at the base of the OFF transistor changes comparatively quickly to switch the same ON, whereas the signal at the base of the ON transistor changes comparatively slowly to switch the latter off, which can lead to both being briefly conductive simultaneously, leading to voltage spikes and precluding safe dissipation of inductive energy in the transistors themselves. A coupling capacitor connects the transistors at their bases and has a capacitance value such that it develops and maintains a substantially fixed potential difference between the two bases. This causes the change in base potential at the ON-going transistor to be retarded in dependence upon the otherwise slower change occurring in the base potential of the OFF-going transistor, and furthermore causes the OFF-going transistor to become non-conductive before the ON-going transistor becomes conductive. This too helps to make it safe to dissipate in the OFF-going transistor the stored energy of the associated wound conductor.