System, algorithms, and circuitry simplify motor-control development
By Bill Schweber -- EDN, July 24, 2003
Power-component vendors are moving up the integration ladder, answering users’ plea to “please, do more of my design.” For example, International Rectifier now offers its iMotion integrated design platform with a development system, the IRMCS203, along with the IRMCO203 intellectual-property library of motion-control algorithms (Picture). The products target sensorless control of permanent magnet motors, which reduce cost and enhance reliability. Applications include home appliances and high-speed spindle motor control, such as 100,000-rpm dental drives.
For requisite signal-processing speed, the development system’s digital control sec-tion uses a configurable, FPGA-based control engine for parallel processing, with PWM carrier frequencies and computational update rates as high as 50 kHz. Another library, the IRMCO201, targets encoder-based servos with closed-loop torque-control bandwidth greater than 5 kHz. The Windows-based configuration tool lets you map the internal registers to configure motor and control parameters and limits.
You can use the development systems, which sell for $2500, for either encoder-based or encoder-free architectures. They come with a 1-kW servoamplifier and motor so that you can quickly begin serious designing and testing. You arrange licensing of the object code for production as a separate cost.
International Rectifier Corp, http://imotion.irf.com.
