Page 37 - EE Times Europe Magazine | June2020

EE|Times EUROPE 37

MOTOR CONTROL
Gate Driver Solutions Proliferate applications continue to strengthen, better

for Motor Control power conversion technology is also needed
to minimize total power losses and simplify
the design.
By Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio The driver is a basic element of BLDC
control. It is a power amplifier that produces
a voltage output to drive the high-current
lectric motors convert electrical according to the company. high-side and low-side IGBT gates of the
energy into mechanical energy that Power Integrations offers several gate H-bridge circuit. To meet rapidly rising
can be used for the movement of the driver solutions. The SID11x2K family demand, Power Integrations has released a
E articulated mechanisms to which they comprises single-channel IGBT and MOSFET new BridgeSwitch family for BLDC engines
are connected. The electric motor must be drivers in a standard eSOP package. Rein- up to 400 W. These high-voltage half-bridge
able to develop a significant torque starting forced galvanic isolation is delivered using motor drivers are 99.2% efficient, require no
from zero speed and must be highly efficient Power Integrations’ solid-insulator FluxLink heat sink, and reduce software certification
across the full load range. Ideally, it also technology. Output drive current of up to 8 A time and expense, according to the company.
needs to have a simple driving and control (peak) enables the products to drive devices The BridgeSwitch driver family features
system. up to 600 A (typical) without requiring addi- advanced fast-recovery–diode field-effect
DC motors use electrical energy in a con- tional active components. transistors (FREDFETs) with integrated loss-
tinuous form. They are generally low-power The SID1183K family is a similar gate less current sensing. The superior efficiency,
and are particularly suitable for applica- driver solution based on eSOP-packaged combined with the distributed thermal
tions requiring low driving torque and a single-channel IGBT and MOSFET drivers. structure of the integrated half-bridge (IHB)
Features include short-circuit protection driver, reduces both the weight and cost of
(desaturation detection) with advanced soft the system. The integrated lossless current
Electric motors need to be shutdown (ASSD), undervoltage lockout detection system, bus voltage detection
able to develop a significant (UVLO) for primary-side and secondary-side circuitry, and system-wide thermal detection
circuitry make this family of devices ideal for
control, and rail-to-rail output with
torque starting from zero temperature- and process-compensated out- BLDC motors used in household appliances.
speed, be highly efficient put impedance to guarantee safe operation INDUSTRIAL MOTORS
even in harsh conditions.
The SID1183K offers a low, 260-ns prop-
across the full load range, agation delay time and propagation delay Industrial motors and medium-voltage drives
(MVDs) must be made to last, ensuring high
and, ideally, have a simple jitter of ±5 ns with high common-mode– reliability and availability that can withstand
driving and control system. transient immunity. FluxLink technology harsh environmental conditions. Power Inte-
enables safe isolation between the primary
grations offers robust gate driver solutions
side and secondary side. for industrial motors, supporting multilevel
topologies as well as H-bridge series connec-
certain flexibility of operation. AC motors DC MOTORS tion MVDs.
can be synchronous or asynchronous and Brushless DC motors (BLDCs) offer greater The 2SC0435T is a compact driver for
use single-phase or three-phase alternating efficiency and reliability than brushed industrial applications offered by Power
current. In particular, synchronous motors motors and are finding increased applica- Integrations, with a footprint of
have rotation speeds rigidly connected to the tion in household appliances and consumer 57.2 × 51.6 mm and a 20-mm profile. The
frequency of the sinusoidal current. electronics. As efficiency standards for those SCALE-2+ chipset reduces the number of
Before choosing the ideal motor, engineers
need to know the weight and size of the load
and at what speed it will move. The working
area of the motor under load must fall below
the torque curve of the motor. A standard
method of sizing a motor is to assume “limit”
situations — in other words, to determine the
peak values required by the application for
torque and speed — to ensure a fair margin
of operation.
AC MOTORS
Reliable AC motors are essential to many
industrial production processes, from
ventilation to fluid- and solid-material
transport. AC motor drive designers are con-
stantly striving for energy savings and size
reduction. Power Integrations’ gate driver
solutions offer outstanding efficiency and an
unrivaled level of integration for compact,
standard, and premium AC motor drives, Typical application schematic for the SID11x2K and SID1183K (Image: Power Integrations)

www.eetimes.eu | JUNE 2020