ON Semiconductor introduces advanced and flexible motor development kits

     ON Semiconductor introduces advanced and flexible motor development kits to accelerate the development of more energy efficient motor control solutions for applications ranging from less than 1 kW to more than 10 kW. Electric motors account for more than half of all electricity generated 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. The motor development kit addresses the urgent need to improve 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 use a variety of different ON Semiconductor motor drive frequency conversion solutions, from high voltage integrated modules to low voltage discrete MOSFETs. UCB is a universal control platform that can be connected to any power board, enabling engineers to evaluate alternative motor control technologies for various types of motors and at various power levels.

     Intelligent motor control requires a flexible and programmable approach. UCB is based on Xilinx's Zynq®-7000 system-on-a-chip (SoC) family. This powerful device integrates two ARM®Cortex™-A9 processor cores and a field programmable gate array (FPGA) architecture 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 a number of 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 extensive lineup of discrete devices, Intelligent Power modules (IPM) and die-cast Power Integrated Modules (TM PIM) to improve energy efficiency. MDK brings together its expertise and technology to help engineers quickly develop more energy efficient solutions for any application that uses 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 UCB and several power evaluation boards, developed with best-in-class power devices from On Semiconductor. Software development support comes from Xilinx for high-level synthesis in the form of the Vivado® design suite. USB can also be programmed in Python through Xilinx's open source project PYNQ.

     Ali Husain, Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy and Marketing, ON Semiconductor, said: "ON Semiconductor offers a broad lineup of power solutions optimized for variable motor control. The motor development Kit integrates these technologies into a single ecosystem and can really help design teams accelerate the development of more energy efficient motor control solutions."

     Chetan Khona, Director of Industry, Vision, Medical and Scientific at Xilinx, said: "Optimizing the energy efficiency of motors has a huge impact on the carbon footprint of factories and industrial equipment on Earth. On Semiconductor's technology, combined with the high-performance motor control of the Xilinx Zynq SoC, significantly reduces operating costs, provides maximum adaptability for user customization, and positively contributes to the environment. On Semiconductor's new motor development kit puts this all within reach and facilitates the migration from prototype to production."

     The MDK currently supports two motor power boards. The SECO-1KW-MCTRL-GEVB is suitable for driving motors up to 1 kW, and the SECO-MDK-4KW-65SMP31-GEVB is suitable for driving motors up to 4 kW. Both power boards use IPM technology from On Semiconductor and will be available in the fourth quarter of 2020. An additional power board based on ON Semiconductor's TMPIM technology will be available in the first quarter of 2021 to drive motors up to 10 kW. It is expected that the MDK ecosystem will look to further add more power boards and extended design support.