Low Pin-Count MCU for Multiple Motor Control

Toshiba Corporation's Storage & Electronic Devices Solutions Company today announced that it has developed a new group of microcontrollers, the M4K group that allow a single-chip with a low pin-count (32- to 64-pins) to control multiple motors. The MK4 group is the second offering in Toshiba's TXZ™ family of high-speed, low power consumption microcontrollers that incorporate the ARM® Cortex®-M core, and sample shipments of 13 products will start in October.

As energy saving regulations are gradually tightened and products continue to be miniaturized, demand is increasing for microcontrollers (MCUs) with low pin-count that can efficiently control multiple motors.

The new products meet requirements for the motor control systems of home appliances, such as air-conditioners, and are based on the ARM® Cortex®-M4F, which incorporates a floating point processing unit. Integrated features include a high-precision AD convertor with a 0.5 μs conversion speed, high-speed Flash memory with 80 MHz operation, and a co-processor for Toshiba’s original vector engine. Together, they ensure the new products realize efficient motor control while improving the power factor and system control.

The new products support the RAMScope interface, which can confirm parameters in real time without stopping motors, by loading parameters relevant to motor control to RAM. A self-diagnostic function that confirms the reference voltage of the AD convertor, and a CRC arithmetic circuit that detects incorrect detection for every read operation of the memory are also incorporated and contribute to load mitigation of the software process required for functional safety.

Main features included: (1) Two motors can be controlled with a 64-pin package. Until now, driving two motors required a product with a 100-pin type package. Now, the TXZ family products with 64-pin type package can control two motors, because the AD convertor for detecting motor positions is accelerated and a 0.5μs conversion speed is realized.

(2) Providing solutions for driving motors more simply. Driving motors can be easily realized by providing solutions such as sample software using built-in hardware resources (the advanced vector engine plus (A-VE+), a high-speed AD convertor, and an advanced programmable motor control circuit (A-PMD)) for realizing the vector control and the power supply control.

(3) The package line-up supports reductions in the size of circuit boards used for products such as home appliances. Provide various line-ups of low pin-count (32 pins to 64 pins) and small Flash memory (64 KB to 128 KB) products. Products with a wide pitch for flow mounting and a fine pitch for reflow mounting are included in the line-up.