BLDC drivers target high-voltage applications

12th February 2020

Alex Lynn

0 0

STMicroelectronics has introduced four new devices in the STSPIN32F0 motor-control system-in-package BLDC driver family, which simplify the design of mains-powered home appliances and industrial equipment including corded power tools, drives, pumps, fans, and compressors.

The 250V STSPIN32F0251 and STSPIN32F0252, and 600V STSPIN32F0601 and STSPIN32F0602 combine three-phase gate drivers and an STM32F0 Arm Cortex-M0 microcontroller to simplify high-voltage Brushless DC (BLDC) motor drives. Popular control algorithms and application examples are provided, including single-shunt and three-shunt field-oriented control (FOC), as well as traditional sensored single-shunt and 6-step sensorless control.

The four devices are pin compatible, allowing hardware and firmware to be reused in products for 110V AC and 250V AC operation. The ICs feature a standby mode to help minimise power consumption in idle conditions.

All gate drivers integrate bootstrap diodes and protection circuitry including cross-conduction prevention and deadtime insertion. In addition, UVLO on both the lower and upper driving sections prevents the power switches from operating in low-efficiency or dangerous conditions. There is also a patented fast-acting smart ShutDown (smartSD) function for overload and overcurrent protection.

The integrated 48MHz STM32F0 MCU lets users rely on the rich STM32 development ecosystem to build their applications. The 4KByte SRAM and 32KByte Flash provide data and code storage, while analog and digital peripherals include a 12-bit ADC with up to ten channels, six general-purpose timers, 21 general-purpose I/O (GPIO) pins, and I2C, UART, and SPI ports. An integrated bootloader permits flexible device-lifecycle management by allowing firmware updates to be applied in the field.

Four inverter evaluation boards are available and fully compatible with X-CUBE-MCSDK (motor control software development kit), starting from 5.4.1 version. These tools simplify development of drives leveraging single-shunt and three-shunt control.

The 600V EVSPIN32F0601S1, EVSPIN32F0601S3, EVSPIN32F0602S1, and 250V EVSPIN32F0251S1 also contain a power-supply stage and a populated MOSFET output stage with dual-footprint flexibility that allows replacing the devices provided with alternative MOSFETs or IGBTs in DPAK or PowerFlat packages.

A detachable STLINK debugger allows configuration and firmware debugging using standard STM32 tools. Single-wire debug (SWD) and UART connectors are also available.

The STSPIN32F0251, STSPIN32F0252, STSPIN32F0601, and STSPIN32F0602 are packaged as 10x10mm TQFP devices, and available now from $1.84 to $2.09 for orders of 1,000 pieces.