STMicroelectronics demo board boosts dual-motor designs

22nd May 2024

Sheryl Miles

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STMicroelectronics’ EVSPIN32G4-DUAL demonstration board controls two motors from a single STSPIN32G4 integrated driver, accelerating product development and simplifying the PCB design and bill of materials (BoM).

The EVSPIN32G4-DUAL board cuts the time to market for advanced industrial and consumer products such as robots, multi-axis factory automation systems, garden equipment, and power tools. The STSPIN32G4 motor controller contains an Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller (MCU) with the processing power to manage both motors simultaneously, executing complex algorithms like field-oriented control (FOC) in real-time. In addition, MCU peripherals support sensored or sensorless FOC and advanced position and torque-control algorithms, including motor-control and general-purpose timers, analog functions including operational amplifiers and comparators.

The EVSPIN32G4-DUAL demonstration board leverages an advanced three-phase gate driver integrated in the STSPIN32G4 and an additional STDRIVE101 gate driver to control two three-phase inverters delivering up to 10A with a maximum supply voltage of 74V. Both gate drivers have their own bootstrap circuitry and safety features including drain-source voltage monitoring, cross-conduction prevention, several thermal protection mechanisms, and under-voltage lockout (UVLO).

EVSPIN32G4-DUAL also leverages the STSPIN32G4’s built-in power-management circuitry, permitting a compact design with a low BoM that is easy to procure and permits rapid assembly in production. The power management includes a programmable buck converter for gate drivers VCC supply, a low-dropout linear regulator, and a special regulator with low quiescent current to supply the MCU during standby.

The STSPIN32G4 is included in the STM32 ecosystem that provides extensive support for application development, including tools for starting the project, middleware packs, and software examples. The X-CUBE-MCSDK (motor control software development kit) has firmware libraries for algorithms including FOC and STM32 motor-control workbench. This is an easy-to-use graphical tool that lets the user select and automatically configure the EVSPIN32G4-DUAL directly from a menu.

EVSPIN32G4-DUAL is available now for $145.