Motor control is one of the peripherals that can be found in a lot of designs. Industrial controls, embedded systems, small Internet of Things products, home automation, and a lot more can all benefit from incorporating a motor driver and controller feature. Because motor controller components are so prevalent, numerous major semiconductor manufacturers have developed extensive portfolios of motor drivers, some of which are designed specifically for particular applications. We decided to highlight three motor control options within the CELUS Design Platform to assist designers in navigating the numerous options. In each of the applications that were discussed, these three have simple implementations.

The best part is that these components’ schematics can be easily created using common ECAD file formats. CELUS has three basic motor vehicle drivers. CELUS offers a wealth of motor control ICs, and we don’t have time to highlight all of these in a single article. On the other hand, we want to concentrate on three choices that demonstrate the variety of applications that can benefit from a precision motor driver and controller. Renesas Electronics’ DA7282 The Texas Instruments DRV10983 From Analog Devices, the MAX31760 As shown in the block diagram below, control is primarily provided by an I2C interface and 3 GPIOs, overall providing a simple interface for control and configuration with a microcontroller.

The DA7282 comes in two package options: wafer-level chip-scale package (WLCSP) with fine-pitch BGA footprint, and a standard QFN footprint. The DA7282 also has a lower standby current by 20 times than the DA7280 and DA7281 before it, which helps systems that need small batteries last longer. This motor driver IC is ideal for implementing haptic feedback in small wearable devices due to its low standby current and BGA package. Renesas Electronics has more information about the DA7282! Driver for DRV10983 BLDC from Texas Instruments The DRV10983 driver is made for controlling three-phase BLDC motors with a drive current of up to 2 A and an input voltage of 12 to 24 V.

This component, in contrast to many BLDC motor drivers, has a separate pin that can accept either analog or PWM input. Alternately, driving can be controlled directly via an I2C interface, and the device sends a report of the motor speed to the system microcontroller. Even though this part has an integrated driving stage, the application circuit below shows that it needs a big external inductor. Due to the driver’s higher power delivery capabilities and the fact that it is also housed in an SOIC package, the driving circuit’s total footprint is somewhat large. The overall operation of this component is depicted in the block diagram that follows. The SPEED pin is automatically multiplexed to make it possible to drive analog or PWM motors, and I2C can be used to set the motor driver’s settings.

In addition, the device provides the system microcontroller with directional indication and commutation frequency via two additional pins, DIR and FG. MAX31760AEE PWM Fan Controller from Analog Devices At low voltage, the MAX31760AEE is a dual driver for PWM-driven 4-wire fans. This is typically used for small, driving fans that could be used in an enclosure for an embedded computer or system similar to it. Controlling two distinct fans at two distinct speeds independently is made possible by the two 4-wire fan interfaces. Because it can measure temperature with a thermal diode connected remotely, this device can be used in ASIC cooling. Alternately, a CPU/GPU die’s exposed thermal diode can be utilized for direct die temperature measurement. High-precision temperature determination is then accomplished with an internal ADC, as shown in the MAX31760AEE block diagram.

The MAX31760AEE also measures its own die temperature as a safety feature, which not all fan drivers will do. With monitoring on an analog pin in the system MCU, this eliminates the requirement for an external thermistor. The microcontroller is notified via the ALERT pin in the event of an detected overtemperature. Access to open-source configuration drivers is one important resource for this component. The C source code for the MAX31760AEE driver can be found here, and Analog Devices has more information about the MAX31760AEE.

Where to Find These Motorists The CELUS Design Platform makes it easy for designers to quickly access the schematics for these and many other motor driver ICs that can be used in a variety of applications. CELUS will output schematics in popular PCB design software formats and seamlessly integrate the component’s schematics into your system architecture once a motor driver has been selected. CELUS provides project templates with motor driver functional blocks that can be accessed from your CELUS dashboard. These templates can be used to access a motor driver option and construct your system architecture. Designers can accelerate their development efforts by utilizing components from their preferred manufacturers through the CELUS Design Platform. By defining components and their associated circuitry as CUBOs, CELUS helps reduce risk for designers and allows generated designs to be immediately used in industry-standard ECAD tools. A designer can more effectively incorporate a variety of features into a new product as a result of this shift from circuit design to system design.