Power Integrations has introduced the motor driver ICs with high- and low-side advanced FREDFETs (fast recovery diode field effect transistors) with inverter conversion efficiency of up to 98.5% in brushless DC (BLDC) motor drive applications to 300W.

They also have the IHB’s distributed thermal footprint which eliminates the need for a heatsink, reducing both system cost and weight, says the company. Integrated lossless current sensing, bus voltage sensing and system-level thermal sensing makes the family suitable for BLDC motors in home appliance applications. BridgeSwitch devices target refrigerator compressors, HVAC system fans and other residential and light commercial pumps, fans and blowers.

The 600V FREDFETs used in the ICs have fast, soft-recovery body diodes. This drastically reduces losses during switching and reduces noise generation, which simplifies system level EMC. The high-voltage, self-powered, half-bridge motor driver ICs have device protection and system monitoring and a single-wire status update interface which enables communication between the motor microcontroller and up to three BridgeSwitch devices. Each IC may be configured with different high- and low-side current limits, eliminating the need for the microcontroller and external circuitry to protect the system from open or shorted motor windings, adds the company. Integrated loss-less current monitoring provides hardware-based motor fault protection, which simplifies the task of providing protection under motor-fault conditions to satisfy IEC60335-1 and IEC60730-1 requirements.

The IC also has up to 20kHz PWM frequency, and a small signal output that provides real-time reporting of FREDFET drain current which mirrors the positive motor winding current. Safety features include two-level device over-temperature detection, low-side and high-side cycle-by-cycle current limit, as well as DC bus over-voltage and under-voltage protection and reporting. Devices are compatible with all common control algorithms, field oriented control (FOC), sinusoidal, and trapezoidal modes with sensor and sensorless detection. These are described in the reference designs DER-654, DER-653 and DER-749.

The IC is available in a small surface-mount package, InSOP-24C, offering creepage distances greater than 3.2mm and enabling PCB heatsinking via two exposed pads.