Patent ID: 8120215

Claim:
An N-phased (N is an integer of four or more) AC electric motor comprising: a stator; a rotor arranged opposed to the stator, the rotor having a shaft disposed in an axial direction of the motor about which the rotor rotates; a plurality of stator salient poles and a plurality of rotor salient poles, which are respectively provided as N sets for an N number of phases, the plurality of stator salient poles for each phase being arranged along a circumference of the stator at a corresponding N position in the axial direction of the motor and the plurality of rotor salient poles for each phase being arranged along a circumference of the rotor at the corresponding N position in the axial direction of the motor so as to be opposed to the stator salient poles for each phase, a stator-flux-passing magnetic path arranged along the circumference of the stator at a different position in the axial direction of the motor and formed to allow magnetic fluxes to pass through the stator; a rotor-flux-passing magnetic path arranged along the circumference of the rotor at the different position in the axial direction of the motor so as to be opposed to the stator-flux-passing magnetic path and formed to allow the magnetic fluxes to pass through the rotor; a stator back yoke magnetic path magnetically shared between the stator salient poles for the N number of phases and the stator-flux-passing magnetic path; a rotor back yoke magnetic path magnetically shared between the rotor salient poles for the N number of phases and the rotor-flux-passing magnetic path; and an (N−1) number of substantially looped windings arranged between the stator salient poles for the N number of phases and the stator-flux-passing magnetic path.