New Industry Products

120kHz Torque Control ICs for 3-Phase Brushless DC and DC Brush Motors

February 02, 2019 by Scott McMahan

Performance Motion Devices, Inc., announced the new Juno® Torque Control IC in an ultra-small 56-pin or small 64-pin package. The new Juno Torque Control IC is the company's latest addition to the Juno® IC family that provide full four-quadrant motion control, direct input quadrature encoding, profile generation, and advanced current control. According to the company, the Juno Torque Control ICs offer ultra-precise torque control for 3-phase brushless dc and dc brush motors with direct analog or SPI command input.

Applications for the Juno Torque Control ICs include controlling dc brush, brushless dc motors in medical devices, laboratory automation, inspection equipment, robotics, packaging, 3D printing, and semiconductor automation. The above image features a block diagram of the Juno Torque Control ICs.

Like all Juno ICs, the Juno Torque Control ICs target limited-space designs that need to control noise, vibration, and power consumption. Also like other Juno ICs, the Juno Torque Control ICs are said to be easy to deploy with embedded motion commands and onboard intelligence.

Juno Torque Control IC packages boast the highest PWM frequencies ever offered by Performance Motion Devices going up to 120khz. These Torque ICs include a unique combination of four-quadrant motion control, direct quadrature encoder input, multi-phase waveform generation, and advanced current control for both 3-phase brushless dc and dc brush motors.

In addition, Juno Torque ICs offer OEMs numerous safety features including over- and under-voltage sensing, over-current detection, over-temperature, and i2t current foldback. The Torque ICs also utilize NVRAM to hold motor parameters and motion trace information that can track and optimize system performance.

"Juno Torque Control ICs will enable engineers and designers to gain accurate, reliable, quiet motor control that will fit anywhere in their system," said Chuck Lewin, CEO of Performance Motion Devices. "Juno is the worry-free, ultra-compact, intelligent IC for brushless dc and dc brush motor torque control."

Juno Torque Control IC Features

  • Motors supported: 3-phase brushless dc, dc brush
  • Operating modes:
    • Standalone:  direct command input via external circuitry (onboard NVRAM holds configuration),
    • Host command: microprocessor command input via serial
  • Control loops: Current loop
  • Commutation modes:
    • 6-step (using Hall sensors),
    • Sinusoidal (with quadrature encoder input)
    • Current control modes FOC (field oriented control),
    • Third leg floating,
    • Single-phase,
    • Voltage mode (no current control)
  • Motor output modes:
    • Individual high/low PWM,
    • Sign/Magnitude PWM
  • Communication modes: Point-to-point asynchronous serial
  • Serial baud rate range: 1,200 to 460,800 baud
  • Internal trace: RAM 6,144 16-bit words
  • Internal NVRAM: 1,024 16-bit words
  • Torque command options:
    • Analog signal (12-bit A/D resolution),
    • Digital SPI (16-bit resolution),
    • Internal profile generator,
    • Direct set register
  • Control/status signals: Enable, Fault Out, Host Interrupt, Brake
  • Motor drive signals: PWM High/Low A-C, Amplifier Enable, Current A-C
  • DC Bus safety signals: Shunt, Bus Voltage, Bus Current Supply, Temperature
  • Motor feedback signals: Quad A, Quad B, Index, Hall A-C
  • Max quadrature rate: 40M counts/second
  • Max SPI frequency: 10MHz
  • Current loop rate: 20kHz
  • Commutation rate: 40kHz
  • PWM rate: 20kHz, 40kHz, 80kHz, 120kHz
  • Dimensions:
    • 64-pin TQFP: 12mm x 12mm including leads
    • 56-pin VQFN: 7.2mm x 7.2mm