Infineon introduces integrated MOTIX motor controller and 3-phase gate driver

To help designers meet the end-market objectives, Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) is launching fully programmable motor controllers MOTIX IMD700A and IMD701A. They come in 9 x 9 mm² 64-pin VQFN packaging, offering integration and the higher power density needed in cordless power tools, gardening products, drones, e-bikes and automated guided vehicles.

In one package, the MOTIX IMD70xA controllers combine all the MOTIX 6EDL7141 3-phase gate driver IC features with an additional XMC1404 microcontroller (MCU), whose peripherals and specifications are optimised for motor control and drives. Infineon’s XMC1404 MCU includes a math coprocessor clocked at 96MHz to enhance calculations commonly used in sensor-less field-oriented control (FOC) algorithms, enabling higher system performance. To ensure best-in-class control, XMC1404 inherits most of the high-end peripherals found in the XMC4000 family, including PWM timers, position interface (POSIF) and serial communication modules (including CAN).

The motor control IC features controllability of the gate drive slew rate to minimise system EMI. IMD70xA controllers support adjustable gate drive supply voltage even at low battery voltage levels thanks to built-in high- and low-side charge pumps, as well as many other adjustable gate driver parameters. EMI management by the digital configuration of the gate drive offers a major advantage, enabling optimisation at the EMI test facility without needing to change any components on the board. In addition, both products come with a full suite of motor-drive-specific system protection features such as OCP, UVLO, over-temperature, and locked rotor detection, offering increased reliability and robustness.

The new devices offer integrated precision power supply and current-sense amplifiers, further reducing the need for peripheral circuitry and thus external component count and PCB space. This leads to simplified routing and brings down BOM and assembly costs while offering improved system packaging possibilities for designers to meet the challenges of housing motor drives in small and awkwardly shaped cavities found in such applications. On top of that, thanks to the 6EDL7141 gate driver, they offer maximum flexibility and many highly-configurable functions able to be set from a user-friendly GUI tool, which interfaces with a PC through an SPI interface connected via a USB port.