Patent ID: 7224565

Claim:
Control circuit for driving an electric actuator, comprising: a direct voltage source; a chopper circuit arranged between said source and the electric actuator; and an electronic control circuit designed to apply to the chopper circuit a command signal essentially of the PWM type, with a predefined ON/OFF switching period and a predetermined duty cycle, for a predefined activation time, to produce a flow, within the electric actuator, of a switched current having a nominal duration corresponding to said activation time; wherein said control circuit detects the last complete switching period included within the activation time, identifies a final interval of the activation time, comprising the last complete switching period and any subsequent fraction of a switching period included within said activation time, splits said final interval into an on-time and an off-time in accordance with said predefined duty cycle, and drives the chopper circuit in said final interval to make the current in the actuator increase for said on-time and decrease for said off-time, to maintain substantially the same value of current in the actuator at the end of the activation time.