PI introduces the brushless DC motor driver IC product line

     The BridgeSwitch IC integrates two enhanced FREDFETs (field effect transistors with fast recovery epitaxial diodes) for the upper and lower tubes of the half-bridge circuit, and has lossless current detection, enabling inverter efficiency of 99.2% in brushless direct current (BLDC) motor driver applications.

     Power Integrations has announced a new expansion of the BridgeSwitch™ Integrated Half-bridge (IHB) motor driver IC product line, which now supports applications up to 400W. The industry-leading efficiency performance and distributed cooling approach provided by IHB drivers eliminates the need for heat sinks, helping to reduce system cost and weight.

     The new 400W BRD1167 and BRD1267 BridgeSwitch ics offer A maximum RMS current of 1.33A and a peak DC output current of 11.5A. Like the rest of the BridgeSwitch product family, both devices are self-powered and come in the same thin InSOP-24C surface mount package. These devices can drive single-phase or multiphase high-voltage synchronous or asynchronous motors and support all commonly used microcontrollers (MCUS) and motor control algorithms. All BridgeSwitch ics provide period-by-cycle hardware-based overcurrent, overvoltage/undervoltage, and overtemperature protection, eliminating many of the protective components in the software. This helps simplify IEC 60335 and 60730 certification, which in turn saves time and costs.

     Like other ics in the BridgeSwitch product family, the new and upgraded BRD1167 and BRD1267 devices have built-in device protection and system monitoring features, as well as a reliable single-wire interface for operating status updates. Communication between the motor microprocessor and up to three BridgeSwitch devices. The upper and lower limit points of each BridgeSwitch device can be set individually, which eliminates the need for the microprocessor and associated peripheral circuits to protect the entire system from open or short circuits in the motor windings.

     Cristian Ionescu-Catrina, Senior Product Marketing Manager: "BridgeSwitch is a flexible and scalable solution for single-phase and multiphase inverter designs. With the increased power capacity of 400W, the product family will be able to support applications with greater RMS current requirements and more demanding thermal requirements, such as range hoods, compressors, fans and various pump applications."