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Atmel has launched a new set of highly-integrated system basis gate driver ICs. The ATA6843 and ATA6844 devices are new members of the company's gate driver family designed for 3-phase brushless DC (BLDC) motor control applications including turbo chargers, waste gates, EGR, pumps, fans, power window, power doors and power seats.
They feature six-output stages for direct motor control when combined with an Atmel AVR microcontroller (MCU), and an on-chip Atmel automotive LIN transceiver IP for in-car communication. These new driver ICs are the only products in the industry that incorporate all the essential functional blocks to supply and monitor a microcontroller in BLDC motor control applications. As a result this enables a smaller footprint for applications with limited space and increases the overall system safety. With most automotive BLDC motor applications located in hot under-the-hood environments, the ability to withstand extremely hot temperatures is a device requirement. The ATA6844 is a high-temperature version that can operate at chip temperatures of up to 200°C. The device is manufactured in Atmel's own state-of-the-art BCD-on-SOI technology SMART-I.S. for extreme temperatures, and enables direct attachment of the ECU to hot actuators for short wiring and optimized construction.
The company’s automotive-qualified AVR microcontrollers are designed to support the new system basis gate driver ICs in various BLDC motors with Hall sensors as well as sensorless BLDC motors with back-electromagnetic force (BEMF) sensing. With the devices' six input stages, the MCU individually controls each of the six output stages. The MCU also defines the adjustable overcurrent detection threshold of the ATA6843/44 to enable a current monitoring tailored to the various types of power MOSFETs used in the application.
