New Industry Products

Brushed DC Motor Driver with Integrated Current Sensing

October 25, 2015 by Jeff Shepard

Texas Instruments (TI) today introduced a family of three brushed dc gate drivers featuring the industry's first device with integrated current sensing. With this integration, designers using the DRV8871 can avoid the power loss, heat generation and cost associated with using external sense resistors. Compared to competitive devices, the DRV8871 motor driver family helps reduce design complexity, power consumption and board space in end equipment such as multifunction printers, appliances and industrial machines.

Expanding TI’s brushed dc motor driver portfolio, the DRV8871 is one of three new brushed dc drivers with integrated MOSFETs, developed for space-constrained designs. The DRV8870 features integrated regulation to limit current to an external current-sense resistor. The DRV8872 provides fault monitoring to increase system reliability.

Key features and benefits include: Reduced system complexity: When designing with the DRV8871, the elimination of discrete sense resistors reduces board space by up to 25 percent. The devices use standard low-cost, low-power resistors to set the current threshold, limiting startup and stall inrush currents. The ability to limit current to a known level can significantly reduce the system power requirements and bulk capacitance needed to maintain a stable voltage, especially for motor startup and stall conditions. Board layout with accurate current regulation is simplified because no sense routing is required with the DRV8871. The devices offer a wide 6.5- to 45-V motor-supply voltage to support industry-standard 12- and 24-V supplies.

The DRV8870EVM, DRV8871EVM and DRV8872EVM evaluation modules (EVMs) demonstrate the capabilities and performance of their respective brushed DC motor drivers. The EVMs also incorporate the TPS7A16 low-dropout regulator (LDO) and the TLC555 low-power timer. They are available for purchase for US$49 via the TI store and authorized distributors.

The 8-pin DRV8871 family is available now in a 4.9-mm-by-6.0-mm thermally enhanced small outline package (HSOP). Pricing in 1,000-unit quantities starts at US$1.40 for the DRV8871 and US$1.28 for the DRV8870 and DRV8872.