Reference design speeds up brushless DC motor control development

San Jose, Calif. — Renesas Technology America, Inc. has introduced the R8C/25-based brushless DC (BLDC) motor control reference platform (MCRP). The platform allows engineers to quickly bring the latest motor control technology to appliances, power tools, fans, pumps, and many other products, while providing the performance, reliability and power efficiency needed in these systems.

At the heart of the reference platform is a R8C/Tiny microcontroller (MCU) that can handle different BLDC motor control algorithms to meet the three primary requirements for motor control applications: cost, performance and flexibility. The R8C/25 is based on the 16-bit R8C CPU core and offers a maximum operating frequency of 20 MHz.

The R8C/25-based BLDC platform supports the following four BLDC motor control algorithms:

• 120-degree trapezoidal Hall-sensor based BLDC motor control
• 180-degree sinusoidal Hall-sensor based BLDC motor control
• 120-degree sensorless (back-EMF) based BLDC motor control using external comparators
• 120-degree sensorless (back-EMF) based BLDC motor control using the MCU's on-chip A/D converters

The platform also offers design simplicity with a 2-layer printed-circuit-board (PCB).

The reference design comes with a complete hardware and software package to help reduce development risk. The hardware platform offers many features that allow users to experiment during development and debugging. Various configurations are user selectable via jumpers, and LEDs provide a visual indication of the switching pattern of the pulse-width modulation (PWM) signals driving the motor. Integrated debug and communication interfaces that use an isolated E8a debug port and an isolated serial port interface provide communication with the host PC. The hardware also incorporates over-current protection and an emergency shut-off function.

Pricing: $499 for the (YMCRPR8C25) R8C/25-based BLDC MCRP (circuit board with MCU, 24-V BLDC motor, E8a debugger, control algorithms and documentation).
Availability: Second quarter of 2008.
Product information: motor control platforms

Renesas Technology Corp., www.renesas.com