BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present disclosure relates to a control system that performs control based on wireless communication.

Description of the Related Art

Conventionally, there are systems that supply power to and drive motors. In a semiconductor exposure device, a motor that moves wafers by a very small amount in order to form patterns on the wafers is installed on a stage for moving the wafers to an exposure position, and a power supply cable that supplies power for driving the motor is connected to the stage. This cable also moves as the stage moves, and thus, the tension of this cable influences the positioning accuracy of the stage. In view of this, consideration is being given to achieving wireless driving of a motor to remove the need for a power supply cable.

As a technique for achieving wireless driving of a motor, Japanese Patent No. 6219495 discloses a configuration of a motor system that wirelessly drives a wheel of a vehicle. In this motor system, not only is power for driving a motor transmitted wirelessly, but a control signal is also transmitted to a motor driving circuit provided on a power-receiving side (movable side) by using wireless communication utilizing electromagnetic waves, and control of the motor driving circuit is thereby realized. Furthermore, in order to deal with the influence of a delay that occurs when wireless communication utilizing electromagnetic waves is performed, a detection circuit for detecting the driving current and driving voltage is provided on the power-receiving side and feedback control is performed based on detected values, and control of a rectification circuit is thereby realized.

In recent years, there has been a demand to increase the speed of wireless communication of a control signal for driving a load portion, such as a motor. In order to increase precision and exposure speed in a semiconductor exposure device for example, a control signal for driving the motor needs to be transmitted at a shorter cycle. In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 6219495, it can be expected that a delay of several hundred μs to several ms will occur due to protocol processing, etc., because radiative wireless communication utilizing electromagnetic waves is performed in accordance with a standard of wireless LAN, etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a control system is provided, which includes: a power transmitting coil for wirelessly transmitting power supplied from a power source; a power receiving coil for wirelessly receiving power by electromagnetic coupling between the power transmitting coil and the power receiving coil; a driving circuit configured to drive a load portion using the power received via the power receiving coil; a transmitting coupler for wirelessly transmitting a transmission signal for controlling the load portion; a receiving coupler for wirelessly receiving the transmission signal by electromagnetic coupling between the transmitting coupler and the receiving coupler; and a generation circuit configured to generate a driving signal for controlling the driving circuit from the transmission signal received via the receiving coupler.

Further features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments (with reference to the attached drawings).

