Texas Instruments DC drivers spin motors in minutes
The integrated motor drivers accelerate product design by eliminating external components and software development
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) has introduced two 3-phase, brushless DC (BLDC) motor drivers that allow designers to spin motors in minutes rather than months.
Traditional BLDC motor designs require five to ten components, along with firmware.
The sensorless 5V, 680mA DRV10866 and the 12V, 1.5A DRV11873 cuts this component count to one with no firmware required, significantly reducing board space and system costs, while helping customers speed their time to market.
The devices also provide the lowest operating voltage and standby current to reduce power consumption by up to 75 percent.
The DRV10866 and DRV11873 are both highly integrated;. A single motor driver eliminates the need for external gate drivers, inverters, position detection and feedback, along with a microcontroller (MCU) and firmware, to cut board space, system cost and development time.
The devices utilise TI InstaSPIN-FAN motor solutions, a fully protected robust solution with no coding and very few external components needed to get motors spinning.
A wide operating voltage range of 1.65 V to 5.5 V and low quiescent current of 5µA extends the battery life of portable devices, such as toothbrushes and shavers, compared to existing solutions.
What's more, flexibility adds advanced control. The modules can be combined with a TI MSP430 MCU for designs requiring user interface and closed-loop speed control.
The DRV10866 and DRV11873 are robust, reliable and fully protected. Advanced on-chip protection, including over-current, over-temperature, shoot-through and under-voltage lock-out, increases system reliability.
In addition to the motor driver, the DRV10866EVM and DRV11873EVM evaluation modules (EVMs) include a simple TLC555 timer, frequency generator output, PWM input and motor connection to enable fast, code-free motor evaluation. Both EVMs ship with schematics and gerber files for a suggested retail price of US$25.
Support is available on the Motor Driver Forum in the TI E2ETM Community, where engineers can ask questions and get answers from TI experts.
The DRV10866 and DRV11837 are available today in a 3mm by 3mm SON package for a suggested retail price of $0.39 and 16-pin TSSOP for suggested retail price of $0.89, respectively, in 1,000-unit quantities.
