Simplify your Motor Control Design with DSCs

Prevalent Motor Control Applications

When we think about motors and where motors are used, we most often think of cars and other similar transportation methods like E-Motorcycles, E-Bikes and E-Scooters. But we do not always remember that motors are found in everyday household items such as vacuum cleaners, power tools and home appliances. Our Digital Signal Controller (DSC) solutions focus on the four primary motor control markets of home appliances, automotive, consumer and industrial control.

• For home appliances, dsPIC DSCs offer highly integrated, low-cost devices in small packages including devices that can control two motors using a single dsPIC DSC.
• For automotive applications, dsPIC DSCs are offered in extended and high temperature ranges and full 5V devices to support under-the-hood applications.
• Support for consumer and industrial applications include Field Oriented Control (FOC) algorithms for high efficiency, Maximum Torque Per Amp (MTPA) for maximizing motor torque, Field Weakening (FW) for maximizing motor speed, Initial Position Detection (IPD) for rotor position detection, flying start (aka windmilling) and braking for smooth restarts and direction changes and many other extensions to maximize performance in diverse applications such as fans, pumps and battery-powered tools.

Home Appliances

E-Scooter

Customer requirements for motor control vary greatly based on the type of motors and control algorithms they use, and this often determines the most suitable microcontroller (MCU) solution.

Our dsPIC DSCs are best utilized in applications that require higher-efficiency motors and better control algorithms. These devices are uniquely designed for real-time control and math intensive control algorithms. They include specialized peripherals which are essential for controlling AC Induction Motors (ACIM), Brushless DC (BLDC) motors, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM), Internal Permanent Magnet (IPM), Switched Reluctance (SR) or stepper motors. The dsPIC DSCs are best suited for running software algorithms such as sensor-less Back Electromotive Force (BEMF) or FOC with multiple extensions.

Why Use dsPIC DSCs for Motor Control?

The high performance dsPIC DSCs are perfect for motor control applications which need to support variable speeds with constant torque while running sensor-less FOC for the highest energy efficiency, maximum motor torque output and quiet motor operation.

High analog feature integration optimizes performance, minimizes the total system cost and enables compact designs for space-constrained applications. The dsPIC DSCs have optimized motor control peripherals including high-resolution Pulse Width Modulations (PWMs), high-speed Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), low-voltage off-set op amps, fast comparators with Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) and packages as small as 4 × 4mm.

For automotive applications, we provide:

• Integrated Functional Safety (FuSa) features that help customers achieve ASIL-B and ASIL-C certification for safety critical applications.
• Automotive ready parts with AEC Q-100 qualified, 150°C (Grade 0) Support, 5V operation and multiple integrated communication peripherals like CAN, CAN-FD, LIN and SENT.

We have a comprehensive hardware & software ecosystem to simplify motor control development, which helps get projects to market faster.

In the Americas, we find multiple applications that benefit from our Motor Control DSCs . In the consumer market, power tools companies are increasingly interested in BLDC motors running FOC, but the expertise required to develop products based on FOC is not available in house. This is where our motor control team expertise comes in and provides the tools, development boards and the algorithms that help enable power tool companies to develop their end products much faster.

In automotive applications, many of the designs are done overseas, either in Europe or Asia. However, several local companies have adopted our compact dsPIC DSC-based motor control System in Package (SiP) solutions for actuator designs. Our newly developed motor control SiP dsPIC33EDV64MC205 incorporates a dsPIC DSC and a full-bridge MOSFET gate driver to help  save real estate (board space). It is a cost-effective solution for motor control applications such as automotive cooling fans, gas, oil and water pumps, compressors, valves, actuators, turbo chargers and industrial/commercial applications such as power tools, kitchen appliances and white goods.

Utilizing our dsPIC DSCs and motor control development ecosystem, customers can instantly design their products with relative ease. Our world-wide Marketing and Application Engineering Teams have the motor control expertise to help our clients bring their motor control designs to market while saving time and reducing risk.

Development Tools and Reference Designs

Development tools are an important aspect of designing end products. We make design and development easy with easy-to-use development tools and reference designs that make getting a product to market quick and easy.

The dsPIC33CK DSC LVMC (Low Voltage Motor Control) development board is based on the dsPIC33CK and supports the entire family of products.  This development board supports BLDC, PMSM and IPM motors and runs up to 48V. It supports standard types of feedback, whether it is Hall sensors, phase current or Quadrature Encoder (QEI) feedback. We support single-, dual- and triple-shunt current measurement. There is also a built-in temperature sensor to monitor the MOSFET temperature. The development board can have two mikroBUS™ click boards connected to it to expand features like CAN and LIN.

Two key reference designs are available for customers to utilize when developing their design. The Air Conditioner (AC) reference design is based on the dsPIC33CH DSC, a dual core product with a primary core and a secondary core that can work independently of each other. With the dsPIC33CH DSC, a single chip controls the compressor and the fan motor. It is designed to control an Interior Permanent Magnet (IPM) motor running Field Oriented Control (FOC). Available algorithms for the fan include stall detection, windmilling and Max Torque per Amp (MTPA). Moreover, for the compressor, we have algorithms that will do torque compression, Field Weakening (FW) and MTPA.

HVAC Systems

Refrigerator

The refrigerator market has stringent energy efficiency requirements, and as a result, customers are adopting BLDC or PMSM compressor motors to optimize energy savings. Our refrigerator compressor reference design helps achieve high efficiency and low standby current and is based on the dsPIC33EP DSC and has a 250W output, which is ideal for most home refrigerators. This design is inverter based, which allows the designer to use variable speed control and continue to regulate temperature, which is more efficient compared to fixed speed operation. If you are looking for other motor control reference designs, please check out our motor reference designs.

Moreover, if you are new to motor control algorithms and are looking for prototyping your design or accelerate your development, check out our Graphical User Interface (GUI)-based software development tool MPLAB® motorBench® Development Suite for FOC. This tool performs accurate measurement of critical motor parameters, automatic tuning of feedback control gains and generates source code for an MPLAB® X IDE project, utilizing the Motor Control Application Framework (MCAF). This graphical interactive development environment helps motor control embedded engineers save time in starting up and running new motors with no load or a constant load, especially when the motor parameters are unknown. The MPLAB motorBench Development Suite is a Microchip Code Configurator (MCC) plug-in.

Whether you are new or have prior expertise in the field of motor control, we can help you simplify and accelerate your development as well as save cost with our highly integrated dsPIC DSCs, development tools and reference designs.