TOSHIBA DEBUTS PRODUCT OFFERING SENSORLESS CONTROL OF THREE-PHASE BRUSHLESS DC MOTORS

Toshiba: SmartMCD™ Series gate driver ICs with embedded microcontroller (Graphic: Business Wire)

KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 (Bernama) -- Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (Toshiba) has started volume shipments of its SmartMCD Series of gate driver ICs with embedded microcontroller (MCU).

The first product, "TB9M003FG", is suitable for sensorless control of three-phase brushless direct current (DC) motors used in automotive applications, including water and oil pumps, fans and blowers, according to a statement.

TB9M003FG combines a microcontroller (Arm Cortex-M0), flash memory, power control functions and communications interface functions into a gate driver that controls and drives N-ch power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) for three-phase brushless DC motor drives.

This integration will reduce system sizes and component counts while realising advanced and complex motor control for a wide variety of automotive motor applications.

The new product also incorporates Toshiba's proprietary vector engine, hardware for sensorless sinewave control, reducing the load on the microcontroller, and the size of the software.

The expanding market for electric vehicles requires electrification, component integration, downsized electronic control units (ECUs), and quieter motors.

In response, the new product contributes to downsizing of ECUs by integrating a microcontroller into the gate driver, and to quieter motors by using vector control.

A supplier of advanced semiconductor and storage solutions, Toshiba looks forward to building and contributing to a better future for people everywhere.

-- BERNAMA