Atmel® Corporation announced the availability of its ATA6026 motor driver IC, the first member of a new, upcoming motor driver family. The ATA6026 is designed using Atmel's high-voltage BCDMOS process and is intended for applications in harsh environments. The ATA6026 is well suited for high-volume dc motor applications such as windshield wiper systems, door locks, or seat position adjusters. It is used to drive continuous-current motors in full H-bridge configurations, and supports pulse width modulation (pwm) and direction-controlled driving of four power MOSFETs.
The ATA6026 includes a differential SCI transceiver to reduce radiation emission for improved EMC performance. In a dual front wiper system, one ATA6026 motor driver is used for the left wiper and a second for the right wiper. Since the SCI interface handles the synchronization between the left and right wiper, no mechanical link between the wipers is necessary as with conventional wiper systems, achieving considerable noise reduction and less space consumption. The SCI transceiver is a differential device that can also operate in single-ended mode for systems with only one wiper. The SCI functionality makes the ATA6026 very similar to LIN devices; compared to standard LIN interfaces, however, a faster data transfer of up to 100 Kbaud is possible.
The gate driver IC is integrated and includes a 5V, 100 mA voltage regulator plus a window watchdog resulting in fewer external components for smaller designs requiring less PCB area. Due to the monolithic integration of the voltage regulator, motion control, and the watchdog in one small QFN32 package, overall system costs can be reduced while maintaining the flexibility of the output stages for plug-and-play use in almost any kind of motor driver application.
"With this new motor driver it is now possible to create dual wiper systems without mechanical linkage between the windshield wipers. More space in the motor compartment and reduced mechanical noises are the obvious benefits of this solution," said Hartmut Fischer, Director of Business Center Automotive at Atmel.
The ATA6026 provides several protective features such as over-temperature shutdown, overload, overvoltage and undervoltage protection, as well as full protection against short circuits. The device also meets strict automotive qualification demands (protection against conducted interference, EMC and ESD protection) and can withstand transients as specified in ISO/TR 7637/1.
Samples of the ATA6026 gate driver IC are available now in Pb-free QFN32 packages with pricing starting at US $1.99 for 10k piece quantities. Additional family members, including devices for high-temperature applications of up to 150 degree Celsius ambient temperatures, will be introduced in Q3 2006.
