FROM EDN EUROPE: Motion package codes algorithms onto FPGA

International Rectifier continues its recent theme of offering packaged solutions based on its power devices with the release of the iMotion integrated design package for motor control (Picture). At its heart is a licensable piece of configurable IP (intellectual property) that incorporates efficient motor-driving algorithms with high starting torque and smooth ramp-up. You can design more energy efficient, more reliable, longer lived, and quieter motor controls. Designs can be sensorless, using only dc bus voltage and phase-current information to detect rotor position, or they can use a rotary encoder. The software can handle applications up to and including high-performance precision servo control, with closed-loop torque-control bandwidth of 5 kHz.

You design through a parameter-entry screen, and the system automatically generates configuration code for an FPGA that is at the heart of the control scheme. The performance, which IR says greatly exceeds that of software solutions running on DSPs, comes from coding the algorithms directly into hardware on the FPGA. Nevertheless, an FPGA option is too expensive for high-volume applications, such as domestic appliances; for those appliances, IR will produce configurable versions of the most common algorithms in compatible ASSPs (application-specific standard products). Components of the system include the IRMCO203 IP library; hardware that uses IR's own high-voltage, mixed-signal ICs; and power switches using NPT (non-punch-through) IGBTs and PlugNDrive integrated power modules. IRMCO201 is the IP library for servo designs (with encoders), and IRMCS201 is the corresponding development system. Encoder-based and sensorless development systems each cost $2500. For production, you can buy any of the required parts individually, or as a complete mixed-signal chip set.

International Rectifier, +44 20 8645 8003, www.irf.com.