Patent ID: 7586221

Claim:
A hybrid step motor, comprising: a stator having a plurality of stator poles with a plurality of rotationally displaced stator teeth on said poles; and a multi-section rotor having a plurality of rotationally displaced rotor teeth in magnetic coupling relation to the stator teeth, the rotor including at least one first rotor section and at least one second rotor section axially displaced from the first rotor section, the rotor teeth in both rotor sections having a constant rotor tooth pitch, the rotor teeth of the first section displaced from the rotor teeth of the second section by one-half of the rotor tooth pitch, wherein at least one of the stator and rotor has axially displaced first and second sets of teeth characterized by different tooth widths, such that a rotor/stator tooth width ratio for a first set of teeth is generally optimized for one phase ON operation and a rotor/stator tooth width ratio for a second set of teeth is generally optimized for two phase ON operation, and the rotor/stator tooth width ratios for the two sets of teeth are together optimized for substantially uniform microsteps.