Vehicle door latch device

1. A vehicle door latch device comprising:

a latch which is pivotally mounted to a base member and is rotatable from a full-latch position where the latch is engaged with a striker and capable of holding a door to a completely closed state to an open position where the latch releases the striker and allows opening of the door, via a half-latch position where the door is an improperly closed state;

a ratchet which is pivotally mounted to the base member and prevents the latch from turning in an opening direction by engaging with the latch at the full-latch position and at the half-latch position;

a moving member having an open lever, a sector gear driven by an electrical drive source and rotated from a neutral position to a releasing direction or to a close direction, and a sector gear detection switch;

wherein the open lever urges the ratchet toward the full-latch position forced by a spring and moves the ratchet from the full-latch position where the ratchet is engaged with the latch by moving from the neutral position to the releasing direction, and the open lever is brought into abutment with a stopper portion provided on the base and stops when rotated to the utmost in the releasing direction,

wherein the sector gear rotates the open lever from the neutral position to the releasing direction with forward rotation of the electrical drive source and returns to the neutral position with reverse rotation of the electrical drive source, and

wherein the sector gear detection switch detects the neutral position of the sector gear and outputs a neutral detection signal;

a full-latch detecting switch which is activated while the latch rotates from the full-latch position to the half-latch position;

a ratchet detection switch that detects that the ratchet has turned to a release position where the ratchet disengages from the latch in the full latch position, before the open lever comes into abutment with the stopper portion for release and stops, based on the movement of the moving member in the releasing direction, by driving the electrical drive source;

a half-latch detecting switch that detects the half-latch position of the latch; and

a control unit for controlling operation of the electrical drive source;

wherein the control unit controls the electrical drive source for driving the sector gear in the releasing direction based on a door opening operation of an operation switch,

wherein the control unit controls to stop a power supply to the electrical drive source, when the latch is rotated from the full-latch position to the open position and the full-latch detecting switch is activated while the ratchet detection switch detects the movement of the ratchet to the release position and the open lever is brought into abutment with the stopper portion and is stopped,

wherein the half-latch detecting switch is activated when the latch rotates in the open position direction from the full latch position to a position slightly beyond the half-latch position, and

wherein the control unit controls the electrical drive source to rotate reversely when the half-latch detecting switch is activated, thereby returning the sector gear from the release position to the neutral position, whereby the sector gear, the open lever, and the ratchet are held in the release position after driving the sector gear in the releasing direction until the electrical drive source is reversely controlled.