They implement Renesas’ new, patent-pending technologies that enable full torque at zero speed from motors without sensors. This is an industry first, says the company. The RAA30612, RAJ306101 and the RAJ306102 enable developers to design sensorless BLDC motor systems with higher horsepower and speed at a given torque. They also improve power consumption and reliability, while reducing cost and board space by lowering the number of components designers need to use.

The RAA306012 is a 65V, three-phase smart driver and a standalone device that can be paired with a variety of MCUs from Renesas or from other sources. The RAJ306101 integrates a Renesas RX13T 32-bit MCU with the RAA306012 in a single package, reducing board space and improving cost and reliability. The RAJ306102 integrates a 16-bit Renesas RL78/G1F MCU with the RAA306012, providing similar integration benefits.

The ability to enable full torque at zero speed without sensors is made possible by two innovations which are patent-pending technology developed by the company. The first is Enhanced Inductive Sensing (EIS) which offers stable position detection when the motor is completely stopped. The second, Motor Rotor position Identification (MRI) is used when the motor is operating at extremely low speed. At higher speeds, the new motor driver ICs use conventional methods.  

Sensorless design have cost, space, power and reliability advantages, says Davin Lee, Vice President of the Advanced Analog Division at Renesas. “Our customers can now enjoy these benefits for systems that require full torque at zero speed.”  

The ICs are characterised by high integration including drivers, power management and current sensing, adaptive and adjustable dead time to improve efficiency. They also have a charge pump which maintains steady gate drive voltage at programmed settings.

Programmable gate drive voltage enables driving of N MOSFETs and GaN FETs and the rich sensing blocks allow for better accuracy and wide-speed RPM drive, says the company.

The ICs also have 16 programmable slew rate settings to minimise electromagnetic emissions. In addition, the ICs support a variety of motor control algorithms such as trapezoidal, sinusoidal and FOC.

The ICs also have protection functions to improve system safety.

The RAA306012, RAJ306101, and RAJ306102 are available today. The RAA306012 is available in a 7.0 x 7.0mm 48-pin QFN package. The RAJ306101 and RAJ306102 are offered in 8.0 x 8.0mm 56-pin and 64-pin QFNs, respectively. Renesas is also offering evaluation kits for each of the new devices.