ON semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON), driving energy-efficient innovations, introduced an advanced and flexible motor development kit to accelerate the development of more energy-efficient motor control solutions for applications ranging from less than 1 kW to applications over 10 kW.
Electric motors account for more than half of all electricity produced and consumed in industrialized countries. Most of these motors are alternating current (AC) induction motors with an average energy efficiency of only 44%. To improve energy efficiency, motor drive designers must understand how these and other types of motors work under all load conditions and intelligently compensate for variable conditions. Motor development kits address the pressing need for improved energy efficiency.
The Motor Development Kit (MDK) consists of one of a growing number of power boards connected to a Universal Controller Board (UCB). These power boards feature ON Semiconductor’s various motor drive inverter solutions, from high-voltage integrated modules to low-voltage discrete MOSFETs. UCB is a universal control platform that interfaces with any power board, enabling engineers to evaluate alternative motor control techniques for various types of motors and at various power levels.
Smart motor control requires a flexible and programmable approach. UCB is based on Xilinx (Xilinx) Company’s Zynq?-7000 system-on-chip (SoC) series. This powerful device integrates two ARM® Cortex®-A9 processor cores and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) fabric to provide the best combination of hardware and software configurations. The board also offers a 10-channel differential analog-to-digital converter (ADC), 12 pulse-width modulation (PWM) channels, and many configurable digital peripherals. Communication ports include USB, JTAG and UART, as well as Gigabit Ethernet PHY.
Efficient motor control is one of ON Semiconductor’s business focuses. The company applies its extensive experience and broad lineup of discrete devices, intelligent power modules (IPMs) and die-cast power integrated modules (TM PIMs) to improve energy efficiency. MDK brings together its expertise and technology to help engineers rapidly develop more energy-efficient solutions for any application that uses electric motors.
ON Semiconductor’s MDK provides an “out-of-the-box” experience for evaluating variable speed motor inverter solutions. To achieve this, the modular ecosystem includes the UCB and several power evaluation boards, developed with ON Semiconductor’s best-in-class power devices. Software development support comes from Xilinx for high-level synthesis in the form of the Vivado® Design Suite. USB is also programmable using Python through Xilinx’s open source project PYNQ.
Ali Husain, Senior Manager of Strategy and Marketing, ON Semiconductor, said: “ON Semiconductor has offered a broad lineup of power solutions optimized for variable motor control. The Motor Development Kit integrates these technologies into a single ecosystem that enables It really helps the design team accelerate the process of developing more energy-efficient motor control solutions.”
“Optimizing the energy efficiency of motors has a huge impact on the carbon footprint of factories and industrial equipment on the planet,” said Chetan Khona, director of industrial, vision, medical and science at Xilinx. “ON Semiconductor’s technology combined with Xilinx Zynq SoC’s high-performance motor control , drastically reduce operating costs, provide maximum adaptability for user customization, and make a positive contribution to the environment. ON Semiconductor’s new motor development kit puts this all at your fingertips and facilitates the transition from prototype to production migration.”
MDK currently supports two motor power strips. The SECO-1KW-MCTRL-GEVB is suitable for driving electric motors up to 1 kW and the SECO-MDK-4KW-65SMP31-GEVB is suitable for driving electric motors up to 4 kW. Both power strips use ON Semiconductor’s IPM technology and will be available in Q4 2020. An additional power strip based on ON Semiconductor’s TMPIM technology will also be available in Q1 2021 to drive motors up to 10 kW. The MDK ecosystem is expected to further add more power strips and extended design support.
