Magnet-free contact-less sensor delivers high accuracy and easy customisation

Renesas Electronics Corporation now offers its magnet-free IPS2550 inductive position sensor. Providing enhanced performance and easy customisation, as well as complete stray field immunity, and decreased weight and form factor, the sensor is excellent for usage as an absolute position sensor for high-speed motor commutation in passenger cars, heavy-duty commercial and off-road vehicles, and also motorbikes. With its optimised BOM, the new sensor enables customers to cost-effectively tailor sensor design for their applications and maximise the performance of the sensor’s accuracy.

Customers may also take advantage of a comprehensive motor commutation solution for electronic power steering, traction motors, starter generators, and other motor applications when combining the new sensor with the company's MCUs, gate drivers, and motor drivers.

“We are excited with the response to the new inductive position sensing technology we introduced last June for industrial motors, and we look forward to bringing its advantages to automotive customers with the new IPS2550,” said Christian Wolf, vice president, Automotive Sensor Business Division at Renesas. “The IPS2550 provides a slimmer and lighter contact-less sensor that continues to deliver the high performance and stability that automotive applications demand combined with the flexibility and ease of customisation that enables businesses to manufacture their own resolver or magnetic sensor replacement cost-effectively.”

Based on the company’s inductive position sensing technology, the magnet-free device achieves speeds up to 600krpm (electrical) and is created around the motor, including both off-axis (through shaft and side shaft) and on-axis positioning. Customers can match the amount of sectors to pole pairs of the motor and cost-effectively increase accuracy compared with alternative sensing technologies. Offering total stray field immunity, the thin and light sensor also facilitates easier motor integration. It provides the standard materials needed for customers to produce their own resolver replacement – decreasing BOM costs. The device has been produced according to ISO26262 to support, as a single IC, the most challenging functional safety-critical applications, capable of supporting up to ASIL-C(D) system-level requirements.