New Industry Products

Advanced Silicon Power IC Targeted at Inkjet Printers

January 11, 2006 by Jeff Shepard

Advanced Silicon launches a power combo IC intended to simplify the system design of inkjet printers and multifunctional printers (MFP). The ASMTC6301A is a highly integrated IC comprising control functions for several motors, power management blocks, sensing and protection features as well as a communication interface.

Besides integrating a wide range of functions, the ASMTC6301A also offers a high degree of flexibility and can be used in many different configurations. Depending on the system, the IC can drive either 4 DC motors or 2 DC and one bipolar stepper motors, enabling the control of all the motors of a printing device (e.g. paper feed, print head position, and scanner). Furthermore, an analog encoder interface combined with a dual 8-bit multi-channel ADC offer position control of the motors when operated in conjunction with a code wheel.

The ASMTC6301A works from a single voltage (20V-35V) and delivers three switching buck regulated supplies for the logic, core and analog circuitry. Their values are selectable (1.5/1.8V/2.5V/3.3V for the digital supplies) or even programmable (5V to 8.5V for the analog supply) with output currents ranging between 0.6A and 2.0A.

The chip can be controlled through a 32MHz SPI interface. Several configuration and status registers allow storing circuit parameters for the motor drivers, encoder interface and the voltage regulators. The data conveyed back to the main controller includes information about the motor position as well as important signals indicating system-level problems (e.g. thermal warnings, undervoltage conditions, and so on).

The ASMTC6301A includes many protection features to guarantee correct and damage-free operation in all circumstances. The motor drivers are protected against over-temperature and over-currents, whereas the regulators are protected against cycle-by-cylce over-currents and outputs shorts. Particular care has been brought to the implementation of the power-up and shutdown sequences and to the handling of errors, weather critical or non-critical.

The ASMTC6301A brings numerous advantages to printer designers, among which a more compact system, shorter development time, reduced component count and overall increased reliability. The circuit comes in a thermally enhanced QFP-64 package. It is available for sampling now.