Allegro Announces New Low-Voltage Motor Driver for Portable Market
Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. announced the first device in a planned series of low-voltage motor drivers targeted at the portable market. Allegro's A3901 is a dual H-bridge low-voltage motor driver capable of operating one stepper motor or two DC motors. MOSFET output stages substantially reduce the voltage drop and the power dissipation of the outputs of the A3901 compared to typical drivers with bipolar transistors.
The A3901 is designed for portable applications with a power off (sleep mode) current of 50 nA (typical) and an operating voltage range of 2.5 V to 5.5 V. Output current can be regulated by pulse width modulating (PWM) the inputs. Both H-bridges can be paralleled for higher current operation. Allegro's A3901 offers a very small package size, low operating voltage and low voltage drop MOSFET outputs. Internal circuit protection includes thermal shut down with hysteresis, transient-suppression diodes and crossover current protection.
The A3901 is supplied in a lead-free (100% matte tin leadframe) ten-lead MLP power package (3 x 3 x 0.75 mm) with exposed thermal pad (suffix EJ). The device is priced at $0.49 in quantities of 1,000 and has a 14-week lead-time to market.
