TI's integrated three-phase brushless motor pre-driver reduces board space up to 60 percent while driving up to 60-A FETs

DALLAS, Sept. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today introduced the first in a new line of integrated three-phase brushless motor pre-drivers. The DRV8301 is the most highly integrated pre-driver available today, reducing board space as much as 60 percent compared to the next closest integrated solution. It can drive sub-10-A to 60-A external FETs, providing current scalability, improved thermal performance and greater efficiency in brushless DC (BLDC) and permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) applications, such as ventilation pumps, medical pumps, commercial refrigeration cooling systems, robotics, power tools, e-bikes and other high-torque industrial motor control applications. For more information or to place an order, visit www.ti.com/drv8301-pr.

The highly integrated DRV8301 reduces board space, bill of materials and system complexity while improving reliability. In addition to a fully protected three-phase brushless gate driver, it includes a 1.5-A step-down voltage regulator to power the system microcontroller (MCU), such as the C2000™ Piccolo™; two current-sense amplifiers with integrated input and feedback resistors for current measurements; and a SPI interface for device configuration from the MCU.

Key features and benefits

• Three-phase brushless gate driver: Provides gate drive current up to 1.7-A source and 2.3-A sink from a single 8-V to 60-V supply. Slew rate and dead-time can be adjusted to optimize performance.
• 1.5-A step-down voltage regulator: Operating from 3.5 V to 60 V, the regulator provides power for the MCU or other system components.
• Two bi-directional current-sense amplifiers: Includes adjustable gain, output offset and DC calibration circuitry to reduce board space and system cost. The DC calibration circuitry minimizes DC offset and drift over temperature to improve motor performance.
• Fully protected: Two-stage thermal, cycle-by-cycle over current protection, under-voltage, and shoot through protection with detailed fault feedback reduces design complexity and improves system reliability.

Tools and support

A high-current evaluation kit (DRV8301-HC-C2-KIT) is available today for a suggested retail price of $299. The kit includes the DRV8301 motor driver, a 32-bit C2000™ Piccolo™ MCU controlCARD module, a quick-start graphical user interface (GUI), full development source code and Code Composer Studio™ (CCStudio) integrated development environment (IDE). Multiple GUI and reference projects are available for the DRV8301-HC-C2-KIT, including trapezoidal sensorless and sensorless field oriented control (FOC).

The 32-bit C2000 Piccolo MCU controlCARD module included in the DRV8301 evaluation kit comes with TI's new InstaSPIN™-BLDC sensorless motor control solution, a unique back-electromagnetic field (EMF) technique that allows designers to spin motors in seconds, without knowledge of motor parameters.

Engineers can ask questions and help solve problems in the Motor Drivers Forum in the TI E2E™ Community.

Package, availability and pricing

The DRV8301 is available today in a 14-mm x 8.1-mm HTSSOP package for a suggested retail price of $2.50 for 1,000 units. For simpler hardware-based device configuration, the DRV8302 integrated three-phase brushless motor pre-driver will be available in 3Q 2011.

Learn more about TI's motor control solutions by visiting the links below:

• Order samples of the DRV8301: www.ti.com/drv8301s-pr.
• Order the DRV8301-HC-C2-KIT: www.ti.com/drv8301-hc-c2-kit-buy-pr.
• Watch a video on the DRV8301: www.ti.com/drv8301v-pr.
• Watch a video demonstration of the kit and learn more about InstaSPIN-BLDC: www.ti.com/drv8301kitv-pr.
• Check out motor drive and control selection guides, training, videos, application notes and block diagrams: www.ti.com/motor-pr.

TI spins motors

TI combines a rich history in motor drive and control, a broad portfolio of analog and microcontroller products and a comprehensive offering of tools, software and support to deliver efficient, reliable, cost-effective motor solutions. Customers can get the right solutions at the right performance level to quickly spin any motor, including AC induction (ACIM), brushed DC, brushless DC (BLDC), PMSM and stepper.

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SOURCE Texas Instruments Incorporated