Patent ID: 8203292

Claim:
A controller of a multi-phase electric motor comprising: a drive section, comprising an upper arm switching element and a lower arm switching element, for driving the multi-phase electric motor; a single current detection section for detecting a current value of the multi-phase electric motor; a pulse width modulation signal generation section for generating plural pulse width modulation signals of each phase for each of a plurality of pulse width modulation periods comprised by one control period based on the current value detected by the current detection section and a carrier signal; a current detectability determination section for determining whether the current value is detectable in the current detection section based on the pulse width modulation signal of each phase generated by the pulse width modulation signal generation section; and a phase movement section for moving a phase of the pulse width modulation signal of a predetermined phase generated by the pulse width modulation signal generation section, wherein the phase movement section moves the phase of the pulse width modulation signals of the predetermined phase within one control period by the same amount for all the plurality of pulse width modulation periods when the current detectability determination section determines that current is not detectable.