Patent 7432680 was granted and assigned to Sanyo on October, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A motor control circuit for reducing current consumption. A stepping motor control circuit includes an A/B phase current setting signal generation circuit for generating an A/B phase current signal setting signals provided to a stepping motor driver to supply a stepping motor with a predetermined amount of drive current. Based on a switch signal, first and second switches selectively output an A/B phase current setting signal and an A/B phase reference signal, for reducing the drive current of the stepping motor more than the A/B phase current setting signal. An intermittent drive control circuit generates the switch signal. The stepping motor control circuit provides the motor driver with the A/B phase reference signal in accordance with the switch signal.