The electric motor is a ubiquitous device in the industrial world: from DC- to AC- to special-type designs, these motors are responsible for powering up some of the most important machines used in manufacturing today.
For those unfamiliar with the electric motor, you’d be interested to know that it’s actually the motor drive subsystem that powers this technology. And making up this system is a litany of components and parts, each tasked with a particular responsibility that affects the power, performance, reliability, and overall safety of the electric motor itself.
How well the electric motor performs for the industrial machine largely depends on these smaller parts. And while there are plenty of manufacturers the world over that provide these components, motor drive subsystem component specialists like Avago Technologies make sure the parts the company provides designers of these systems not only drive the electric motor, but do so in a way that maximizes the motor’s efficiency, ensures reliability, and gives the operator a greater sense of control.
Here’s a small sampling on how:
Maximize efficiency
In your average motor drive, power is lost in the IGBT gate driver stage due to inefficiency in the IGBT or MOSFET switching. Here are two ways Avago proposes fixing this problem:
Avago’s 50MBd Versatile Link transmitter and receiver devices support the Amantys Power Insight protocol, which enables real-time monitoring, diagnostics, and adjustment of power transistor switching rate over the existing Versatile Link IGBT control interface commonly used in high power inverters.
The Avago ACPL-339J is a 1.0-A gate drive optocoupler device with dual outputs optimized for driving both high-side and low-side gates of the MOSFET buffer stage (drives the IGBT device). It features an internal active timing control circuitry that prevents cross conduction and minimizes switching losses in the MOSFET buffer stage.
Ensure reliability
Most electric motors operate unprotected in noisy, messy environments. That being the case, it is imperative that the motor have some sort of communication system in place that not only ensures messages get to the machine without hindrance, but that delivery is never compromised.
One of the industry’s solutions is fiber-optic communications, an area of technology that Avago Technologies specializes in:
• Avago’s Versatile Link plastic optical fiber (POF) Tx/Rx solutions are used to ensure drive signals are reliably delivered from the MCU to the gate drive. These solutions are super versatile and can support data rates up to 125 MBd and link distances up to 50 m using standard POF cable.
• Avago’s AFBR-5972Z is a 125-MBd Ethernet fiber-optic transceiver solutions that allows designers to implement either 100- or 10-Mbps Ethernet communications with link distances up to 50 m using standard POF cable.
• Avago’s HFBR-15xxxZ and HFBR-25xxxZ are a family of fiber-optic transmitter and receiver devices that are housed in a dual-in-line package made of high-strength, heat-resistant, chemical-resistant, and UL 94V-0 flame-retardant plastic.
Better control
Feedback of position information from the motor to the MCU improves the motor-commanded position accuracy of an end effector. For higher-end motor control applications, motion information is generally fed back to the MCU to help control a path of an end effector in space.
To meet the positioning and velocity sensing requirements for industrial motor drive applications, Avago Technologies provides a full roster of motion control optical encoders as well as high resolution rotary switches used for human-machine interface for rotary control and data entry purposes:
• Avago’s AEAT-9000 is an all-in-one single-turn absolute encoder device supporting 17-bit resolution with ±1 step code monotony, 500-kHz 2048-CPR analog sine/cosine output and incremental 2,048-CPR digital output.
• The HEDM/HEDS/DEDL/DEDR-5xxx and AEDx-8xxx are series of bearingless housed encoder devices from Avago which support resolutions from 50 to 3600 counts per revolution; these devices come in two- or three-channel output option with or without integrated line driver.
• Avago’s HRPG-Axxx#xxF is a family of miniature panel mount rotary switches designed for rotary control and data entry purposes; available options include detent or smooth rotation, multiple terminations, and versatile mounting capabilities.
• Finally, the AEDR-87xx from Avago is a series of 3-channel reflective optical encoder devices featuring a low-supply-voltage option, dual analog/digital output options and 318-LPI encoding resolution.
To learn more about motor drive subsystem parts that Avago Technologies has to offer, or to learn more about electric motors in general, download the company’s product solutions guide for Industrial Motor Drives.
You can also visit the Avago Technologies website.
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