Date: Aug 20, 2013 Source: (
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Victor, NY — August 20, 2013 — New Scale Technologies, Inc. has secured four additional U.S. patents for technologies to drive and control miniature piezoelectric motors. Two of the innovations were developed in conjunction with ams (formerly austriamicrosystems), a strategic investor in New Scale and a leading developer of high-performance analog ASICs.
The latest patents assigned to New Scale Technologies are:
U.S. patent 8,304,960, which reduces power consumption of reduced-voltage piezoelectric motors by 34% through charge control techniques while maintaining motor speed and force. The patent issued in October 2012 to inventors Thomas Guidarelli of New Scale Technologies and Stefan Sattler of ams.
U.S. patent 8,299,733, which regulates the speed and force of reduced-voltage piezoelectric motors through hybrid full-bridge switching modulation techniques. The patent issued November 2012 to Guidarelli and Sattler.
U.S. patent 8,450,905, which regulates the speed and force of reduced-voltage piezoelectric motors as well as higher-voltage piezoelectric motors through pulse width control techniques. The patent issued in May 2013 to Guidarelli, Robert Culhane and David Henderson of New Scale Technologies.
U.S. patent 8,466,637, which describes the company's "smart step" motor control technique involving dynamic recalibration of piezoelectric motor step duration to account for variations in friction and load. The patent issued in June 2013 to Guidarelli and Henderson.
An additional patent is pending for techniques to dynamically determine the optimal operating frequency of individual piezoelectric motors to account for manufacturing tolerances and variations in ambient temperature and load. Inventors are Guidarelli and Culhane along with Conrad Hoffman and Qin Xu, all of New Scale Technologies.
These innovative drive and motor control techniques are integrated into the NSD2101 piezo motor driver IC for the reduced voltage SQL-RV-1.8 SQUIGGLE motors, the NSD2141 piezo motor driver IC, and microcontrollers for larger piezoelectric motors and higher-voltage piezoelectric motors.
"New Scale and ams continue to define the state of the art in miniature piezoelectric motor control and system optimization," said David Henderson, CTO and co-CEO of New Scale Technologies. "Implementing these patented techniques in ICs and microcontrollers, and using them in conjunction with our SQUIGGLE, UTAF and other piezoelectric micro motors, we are creating the world's smallest, most precise motion control systems that are at the same time very simple for OEM designers to reliably integrate into their next-generation imaging systems and other devices."
Growing patent portfolio
Since its founding in 2002, New Scale has secured twelve US patents and numerous corresponding international patents for piezoelectric motors and motion systems with unmatched miniaturization, micrometer-scale resolution, fully-integrated microelectronics and intelligent firmware. The company both licenses this technology and applies it in custom development projects for original equipment manufacturers in consumer imaging, security, medical, scientific and other markets.
About New Scale Technologies
New Scale Technologies develops small, precise and smart motion systems for critical adjustments of optics in imaging devices and many other micro positioning applications. Our simple and elegant solutions deliver best-in-class performance in consumer imaging, biometric authentication, surveillance, medical devices, scientific instruments, haptic systems and many other markets. We design and manufacture custom products and license our technology to manufacturers worldwide. Our customers benefit from complete motion solutions that are tailored to their unique requirements and easily integrated into their next-generation instruments.
