Appliance half-bridge motor driver eliminates heatsinks, slashes software certification time and expense
Power Integrations announced the release of its BridgeSwitch™ integrated half-bridge (IHB) motor driver IC family. BridgeSwitch ICs feature high- and low-side advanced FREDFETs (Fast Recovery Diode Field Effect Transistors) with integrated lossless current sensing, resulting in inverter conversion efficiency of up to 98.5% in brushless DC (BLDC) motor drive applications to 300 W. Superior efficiency along with the distributed thermal footprint provided by the IHB driver eliminates the need for a heatsink, reducing both system cost and weight. Integrated lossless current sensing, bus voltage sensing and system-level thermal sensing makes this device family ideal for BLDC motors in home-appliance applications. BridgeSwitch devices target refrigerator compressors, HVAC system fans and other residential and light commercial pumps, fans and blowers.
The 600 V FREDFETs used in BridgeSwitch ICs incorporate fast, ultra-soft-recovery body-diodes. This drastically reduces losses during switching and reduces noise generation, which simplifies system level EMC. The new high-voltage, self-powered, half-bridge motor driver ICs also feature built-in device protection and system monitoring and a robust single-wire status update interface which enables communication between the motor-microcontroller and up to three BridgeSwitch devices. Each BridgeSwitch device may be configured with different high- and low-side current limits, eliminating the need for the microcontroller and external circuitry to protect the system from open or shorted motor windings. Integrated loss-less current monitoring provides hardware-based motor fault protection, which simplifies the task of providing protection under motor-fault conditions to satisfy IEC60335-1 and IEC60730-1 requirements.
Other features include up to 20 kHz PWM frequency, and a small signal output that provides accurate, real-time reporting of FREDFET drain current which mirrors the positive motor winding current. Safety features include two-level device over-temperature detection, low-side and high-side cycle-by-cycle current limit, as well as DC bus overvoltage and undervoltage protection and reporting. Devices are compatible with all common control algorithms – field oriented control (FOC), sinusoidal, and trapezoidal modes with sensor and sensorless detection, which are described in reference designs DER-654, DER-653 and DER-749. BridgeSwitch is available in InSOP-24C – a small surface-mount package offering creepage distances greater than 3.2 mm and enabling PCB heatsinking via two exposed pads.
Samples of BridgeSwitch ICs are available now and are priced at $1.69 in 10,000-piece quantities.
