Efficient motor control driver IC enhanced with built-in microcontroller and gate driver control

Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH has released a motor control driver IC that implements a gate driver and a CPU core together with a comprehensive set of features and capabilities for more efficiently driving three-phase BLDC motors and PMSM. With a focus on performance, flexibility, and ease of integration, the TB9M003FG is the first device in the company's Smart Motor Control Driver (SmartMCD) family.

The SmartMCD TB9M003FG uses the company's advanced mixed-signal process technology, combining an Arm Cortex-M0 CPU with a vector engine co-processor and pre-drivers to control external B6 N-channel MOSFETs. This level of integration of the device, which is housed in an HTQFP48 thermal enhanced package measuring 9mm × 9mm, allows for smaller, simpler and lower-cost 30-1000W BLDC motor systems. The device connects directly to the battery and LIN bus, which features a built-in wake-up for power-efficient operation and communication.

The implemented vector engine co-processor enables precise field-oriented control, which is essential for efficient motor control, particularly in applications requiring accurate positioning, torque, or speed control. It accelerates the necessary mathematical operations and reduces the load on the CPU. The high-speed PWM frequency and advanced control algorithms contribute to smooth and quiet operation, reducing vibration and noise. Features such as 1-shunt sensorless measurement, reduced component count, and smaller program code size contribute to lower overall system costs.

The operating temperature range (Ta) of the AEC-Q100 (Grade 0) qualified device is -40C to +150C, ensuring reliability in harsh automotive environments. The SmartMCD incorporates current limiter, overcurrent, VBAT overvoltage, and overtemperature protection circuitry, as well as fault detection for undervoltage, external power MOSFET open/short failure, and overheating. This eradicates the need for several external circuits, further reducing system cost and saving space and design effort.

The SmartMCD Motor Studio PC tool permits easy parameter configuration, drive control, real-time logging and diagnostics through a high-speed UART. Together with the SmartMCD TB9M003FG board from MIKROE, it allows quick and easy system evaluation and BLDC motor application development and prototyping. The flexible licensing options for the device's development tools and software libraries make it easier for developers to access and apply the full capabilities of the motor control system.

Typical applications include electric pumps, fans, body control, and thermal management systems in automotive.