New automotive sinusoidal sensorless BLDC fan driver IC for use in a wide range of applications

Allegro MicroSystems Europe has a new sensorless BLDC controller that is claimed to be the most advanced solution on the market today. The company's automotive variant of the A5932 is a three-phase BLDC motor controller solution, targeted at high-power automotive fan applications with extremely low vibration and audible noise requirements. MOSFET gate driver outputs allow motor currents that can be scaled to fit requirements of the applications. A user-friendly GUI interface offers fast evaluation and a quicker time to market. Key automotive applications include battery, seat, infotainment and headlamp cooling fans. The motor speed is regulated by applying a duty cycle command to the speed (SPD) input. The SPD input is permitted to operate over a broad frequency range. A sinusoidal voltage profile is administered to the windings of the motor at startup to noiselessly start up and steadily ramp up the motor to the required speed. This new device has a 5.5 to 50 input voltage rating with an operating range of -40C to 150C.