Feature-packed BLDC motor ICs trim overall system cost
Keywords:brushless motor IC? BLDC driver? system cost cut?
The ATA6833/34 claimed to be the first BLDC motor driver ICs with integrated driver, watchdog, voltage regulator and LIN interface functionality in a single IC. This facilitates extremely small designs and helps to reduce overall system costs by about a third. Furthermore, the high integration level improves board quality by reducing the number of solder joints.
The ATA6833 is a BLDC motor system basis chip with three half-bridge gate drivers. The three push-pull stages with integrated charge pump can drive six external NMOS transistors. The integrated watchdog monitors the MCU, which in turn is supplied by an integrated voltage regulator programmed to 5- or 3.3V output voltage providing 100mA current capability. An integrated LIN 2.1 transceiverbased on Atmel's stand-alone LIN transceiver ATA6662completes the system basis features. In standby mode, the current consumption is less than 50?A.
The ATA6834, the ATA6833's high-temperature companion, handles operating chip temperatures of up to 200?'C and is suitable for all high-temperature "under-the-hood" applications where actuators handle the flow of hot exhaust gas or hot oil. To implement space-saving designs, the ECUs can be attached to a turbo charger or used to build a mechatronic unit along with a pump motor.
The ATA6833/34 provide several protection features including a two-stage thermal warning and thermal shut-off as well as open-load, overload, short-circuit and undervoltage detection with switch-off functionality. To protect the external NMOS transistors, a built-in shoot-through protection helps to avoid dangerous simultaneous activation of a high-side and a low-side transistor between supply and ground. Customers can adapt the dead time to the needs of their NMOS transistors by the value of an external resistor/capacitor combination.
These devices meet the strict automotive qualification demands (protection against conducted interference, EMC and ESD protection) and can withstand transients as specified in ISO/TR 7637.
Samples of the new brushless motor driver ICs ATA6833/34 are available in QFN48 packages measuring only 7mm x 7mm. Pricing starts at $2.95 for the ATA6833 and at $3.30 for the ATA6834 for 10,000-unit quantities each. An application board for development support, including a programmed AVR MCU, can be ordered for $139.
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