November 19, 2014, Seoul — Infineon Technologies (Korea Representative Director Seung-soo Lee) has launched the ARM®-based Embedded Power bridge driver family. These products meet the growing demands for intelligent motor control in various automotive applications by achieving a previously impossible level of integration. For the first time in the industry, Infineon has integrated non-volatile memory, analog and mixed-signal peripherals, communication interfaces, and MOSFET gate drivers into a single chip within a high-performance microcontroller utilizing the ARM® Cortex™-M3 processor. As a result, the Embedded Power family provides 32-bit performance for the space occupied by 16 bits in the application. As the first products in the Embedded Power family, samples of the TLE987x series for use with 3-phase (brushless DC) motors and the TLE986x series for use with 2-phase (DC) motors are being supplied.

Infineon has combined its proprietary automotive-grade 130nm Smart Power manufacturing technology with its long-standing expertise in motor control drivers into a new family of embedded power products. These products are available in a standard 7mm x 7mm QFN package. Unlike previous multi-chip designs that required independent microcontrollers, bridge drivers, and LIN (Local Interconnect Network) transceivers, automotive system manufacturers can now design motor control systems using a minimal number of external components. By utilizing embedded power products, the number of components can be reduced from approximately 150 or more to fewer than 30, allowing all external components associated with the functions required for motor control to fit into a PCB area of just 3cm². By using embedded power products, these electronic devices can be mounted closer to the motor, thereby enabling a true mechatronic design.

Andreas Doll, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Body Power Automotive at Infineon Technologies, stated, “Smart motor control applications utilize various sophisticated motor control techniques to meet demands for energy efficiency, reduced system costs, and convenience. Infineon addresses these design challenges by providing an automotive-grade embedded power family featuring ARM® Cortex™-M3 processors for intelligent motor control. As a system-on-chip solution combining powerful microcontrollers, MOSFET gate drivers, and all necessary sensing, control, and driving functions, this comprehensive embedded power family enables automotive system manufacturers to lower system costs, improve reliability, and reduce system complexity.”

Features of TLE987x and TLE986x bridge drivers

Both the TLE987x and TLE986x series utilize ARM® Cortex™-M3 processors. These series include a current sensor, a successive approximation 10-bit ADC (synchronized with a CAPCOM6 (capture and compare) unit for PWM control), and a 16-bit timer as a peripheral set. Additionally, by integrating a LIN transceiver, they can communicate using multiple general-purpose I/Os. These series also include an on-chip linear voltage regulator to supply power to external loads. They offer flash memory in various capacities ranging from 36kB to 128kB. Furthermore, these products operate at 5.4V to 28V. By integrating a charge pump, low-voltage operation is possible using only two external capacitors, which significantly reduces the Bill of Materials (BoM) compared to commonly used voltage bootstrap techniques. Additionally, these bridge driver products allow for programmable charge and discharge currents. System EMC operation can be optimized for various types of MOSFETs using a proprietary current gradient control technique. These products can also withstand load dump conditions up to 40V, while operating within an extended power supply voltage range as low as 3.0V to ensure smooth operation of the microcontroller and flash memory.

The TLE987x series bridge driver products are suitable for use in 3-phase (BLDC) motor applications, including fuel pumps, HVAC blowers, engine cooling fans, water pumps, and other pumps and fans. They can be used in sensorless or sensor-based (including field-oriented control (FOC)) BLDC motor applications that are addressed via LIN or controlled by PWM. The LIN transceivers integrated into these products are LIN 2.2 compatible and have received approval from IBEE-Zwickau and the C&S Group. By including six fully integrated NFET drivers, the TLE987x series can drive 3-phase motors through six external power NFETs.

The TLE986x series is suitable for driving two-phase DC motors by integrating four NFET drivers. The TLE986x series is suitable for use in sunroofs, electric window lifts, and other smart motor control via NFET H-bridges.

With the launch of its new embedded power product family, Infineon now supports applications at all levels, from low-end relay motor control to high-end motor control via MOSFETs.

Design support using embedded Power Bridge drivers

Infineon provides a comprehensive development toolchain for use by Infineon and third-party partners for the ARM® Cortex™-M3-based embedded Power Bridge driver family. This toolchain includes compilers, debuggers, evaluation boards, LIN low-level drivers, configurable tools, and examples of software code for motor control. Infineon also provides starter kits to assist with design.

supply

The TLE987x and TLE986x bridge driver products are currently available as engineering samples in a space-saving VQFN-48 package, with mass production scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2015. This series includes products in various configurations with different system clocks (24 MHz or 40 MHz) and flash sizes.

Additional information

More details about the new embedded power products can be found at www.infineon.com/embeddedpower .