Motors are widely applied in various electronic products. Aiming at different application requirements, multiple types of motors have been derived such as DC motors, stepping motors, and brushless DC motors, etc. STMicroelectronics has launched a series of motor drives to satisfy various requirements. This text will introduce the features and advantages of the STSPIN motor driver launched by STMicroelectronics.
Highly Integrated Motor Drivers With Performance and Efficiency Advantages
There are a great variety of motors which can be divided according to power, structure, operating principle, magnetic field direction, and usage, etc. For example, motors can be divided into DC motors and AC motors. They can also be divided into stepping motors, servo motors, synchronous motors, and linear motors, etc. according to the structure. Various motors provide the driving force for all kinds of electronic products. In order to guarantee smooth and stable rotation of motors, motor drivers are required to assist motor operation and conduct precise operation control with the combination of motor controllers. With over 30 years of development experience in motor drivers, STMicroelectronics is the pioneer in motor and motion control industry, which provides various motor drivers to satisfy the requirements of brush DC motors, stepping motors and brushless DC motors, and applies to various voltage and current rated values.
The STSPIN motor driver series of STMicroelectronics has embedded all functions required by efficient driving motors and the highest accuracy including advanced motion curve generators to reduce the burden of the host microcontroller. Meanwhile, it guarantees stability and reliability via comprehensive feature protection and diagnosis as well as the adoption of a power supply lower than 1.8V. Along with the promotion of low voltage STSPIN motor drivers, the portfolio mix has been expanded. Due to the standby current lower than 80nA which is the best-in-class, it can save the power consumption of battery powered smart devices. Depending on the outstanding performance, functions, and comprehensive support of STSPIN motor driver chips, the design of motor control applications will become much easier, which makes brush DC, stepping, and brushless motor control design become more efficient in various applications.
Taking the three-phase BLDC motor driver with an integrated embedded STM32 microcontroller of STMicroelectronics as an example, it supports the power driver with a three-phase bridge configuration and the integrated solution with built-in Hall effect sensor decoding logic. In addition, it has PWM current controllers which can automatically drive BLDC motors through the motion command from motors or host of the motion control system (microcontroller, DSP or FPGA).
Except for the integrated power MOSFET and relevant drive circuit, the motors also include protection and diagnosis functions aiming at over-temperature, over-current, and under-voltage conditions in order to achieve steady and reliable designs. STSPIN three-phase BLDC motor driver chips provide various space-saving thermal enhanced packages which provide ready-to-use and optimization solutions for motors and motion control systems with all kinds of voltage and current rated values. In addition, STSPIN three-phase BLDC motor drivers can provide turn-key motor control modules to provide all required functions such as speed, position, and current loop execution as well as real-time connection with the master control. These modules are compactly connected and are very suitable for being directly installed on the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM).
STMicroelectronics also provides various evaluation boards and low-cost ideal development tools suitable for beginners and experienced users. These kinds of plug-and-play discovery suites can be used with software interface or customized firmware, which gives the credit to STMicroelectronics embedded microcontroller that can assist customers to rapidly and easily develop motor drive solutions. In addition, STMicroelectronics provides relevant schematics, BOM, and Gerber files to offer hardware design and comprehensive technical documentation for customers. It also provides software suites and a complete ecosystem for supporting design development and reducing the time to market.
STSPIN motor drivers can easily conduct evaluation with a STM32 32-bit microcontroller in the development environment with an open, flexible, and affordable STM32 Nucleo development board in order to achieve rapid prototype design and rapid conversion to the final design. Based on STSPIN motor drivers, the STM32 Nucleo expansion board can be plugged in on the top of the STM32 Nucleo development board and achieve more complex functions via stacking additional expansion boards. Standardizing interconnection of expansion board equipment like the Arduino Uno R3 connector or morpho connector can achieve a higher level of connection and each expansion board will be supported by the software modules based on STM32.
STSPIN motor drivers support the 15-year longevity commitment of STMicroelectronics, including the specified notice period in the standard STMicroelectronics policy of end-of-life termination notice (PTN). When devices encounter with significant volume decrease or changes in technology or the manufacturing industry, STMicroelectronics will make the decision of switching to comparable products, other kinds of technology, or different manufacturing plants and inform the customers with a standard STMicroelectronics policy of product/process change notice (PCN).
STMicroelectronics STSPIN motor drivers have leading advantages in integration, performance, and efficiency. They have complete product lines including monolithic drivers, controllers, and System-in-Package drivers, which is the ideal choice for factory automation, motion control, office automation, stage lighting, medicine, security, ATM, vending machines, POS, 3D printers, portable products, and battery powered products.
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