NEUBIBERG, GERMANY: Infineon Technologies has expanded its portfolio of application kits for its leading 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers, introducing scalable reference designs for motor drives which ease the evaluation and implementation of hardware and software solutions for high efficient drives and speed up the time to market.

The new kits are built around members of the 8-bit XC800 and 16-bit XE166 family supporting advanced motor control techniques like Field Oriented Control (FOC) and Power Factor Control (PFC). These sophisticated control techniques are increasingly used in consumer and industrial drives addressing the design focus on higher efficiency, better dynamic response and reduced audible noise.

The three new application kits increase the scalability of reference systems for motor drive applications of Infineon: The Dual Motor Drive Kit based on the XC878 and XE166 improves energy efficiency supporting both FOC and PFC with a scalable solution from 8-bit to 16-bit and a power board driving up to 8A at 110V-230V.

The FOC Motor Drive Kit enables FOC for XC878 and XE166 with a power board capable to drive up to 7.5A at 23V-56V. The 12V-Brushless DC Drive Kit uses the XC866 and makes BLDC (Brushless DC) motor drive design an easy task with the capability to drive motors with up to 20A at 9V-18V. All application kits from Infineon contain a free tool chain including compiler and debugger and offer Plug-and-Play design as all related hardware and software parts are provided. A USB to JTAG and CAN bridge allows digital isolated real time monitoring.

These new application kits widen the portfolio of application kits from Infineon serving a voltage range from 12V to 230V and currents to drive from 200mA to 20A for motors like Stepper, BLDC and PMSM (Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor). All new kits are ready to be used also with Dave Drive, Infineon's unique auto code generator for motor drives.

12V-brushless DC drive application kit
With the 12V-Brushless DC Drive Application Kit BLDC designers can implement the advanced techniques that make their design more reliable and get more power from existing motors, applying simple algorithms that increase control flexibility and improve efficiency. The user can examining the trade-offs of block commutation with Hall sensors versus sensor-less control and determine which approach is best for his applications like pumps, fans, valves or power tools.

The drive card of the kit is built around the 8-bit XC866 MCU providing the timer unit CAPCOM6E for flexible PWM generation unit, a fast 10-bit ADC with 1.5µs conversion time and embedded Flash memory up to 16KB. The Power Board provides an inverter circuit capable of driving up to 20A BLDC motors. The inverter is made by combining three Novalith IC motor drivers from Infineon, providing a low ohmic-protected half-bridge in a single package. The application kit includes a BLDC motor for first experimentation.

The software package includes a free tool chain inclusive SDCC compiler and HiTOP debugger and software examples showing sensored, sensor-less, phase-advance and 12-step control methods for motor control. The very comprehensive video tutorial will guide the user during set up and usage of the kit in a vivid way.