With their many benefits, three-phase brushless DC (BLDC) motors are becoming the primary choice for designing modern battery-powered motor products. However, the need to reduce the size and weight of the product in order to make it ergonomically designed and to extend the battery life poses a significant product design challenge. To help designers meet the needs of the end market, Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) has introduced the MOTIX™ IMD700A and IMD701A, fully programmable motor controllers in a 9 x 9 mm2 64-pin VQFN package that enable wireless power tools, gardening supplies, drones, e-bikes and Automated guided vehicles with higher integration and power density to meet user needs. 

MOTIX™ IMD700A and IMD701A 

The MOTIX IMD70xA series controllers integrate the MOTIX 6EDL7141 three-phase gate driver IC and an additional XMC1404 microcontroller (MCU) in a very small package with peripherals and specifications optimized for motor control and drive. A 96MHz MATH co-processor is built into Infineon's XMC1404 MCU to enhance the computational power commonly used in sensorless magnetic field orientation control (FOC) algorithms, thus enabling increased system performance. In addition, to ensure best-in-class control performance, the XMC1404 retains most of the high-end peripherals found in the XMC4000 family, including a PWM timer, position interface (POSIF), and serial communication modules (including CAN bus). 

The motor control IC features the ability to minimize system EMI by controlling the voltage swing rate of the gate driver. Thanks to its built-in high-side and low-side charge pumps, and many other adjustable gate driver parameters, the IMD70xA series controller can power the gate driver even at low battery voltage levels with adjustable output voltage. In addition, EMI management through the digital configuration of the gate drivers is an important advantage, which allows designers to optimize EMI test equipment without changing any components on the board. Moreover, both new products feature a full set of system protection functions for motor drives, such as overcurrent protection, undervoltage lockout, overtemperature protection, and locked rotor detection, further enhancing system reliability and robustness. 

The new devices integrate precision power supplies and current sensing amplifiers, further reducing the need for peripheral circuitry, thereby reducing the number of external components and saving PCB space. This not only simplifies wiring and reduces BOM costs and assembly costs, but also provides designers with the possibility of improving system packaging to help them meet the design challenges posed by the need to mount motor drivers in tight cavities in such applications. In addition, the new device offers greater flexibility and the ability to configure many functions through a user-friendly GUI thanks to the 6EDL7141 gate driver. This GUI allows data communication with the PC side via SPI to USB interface.