Startup AmberSemi and STMicroelectronics are demonstrating their jointly developed reference design for brushless DC motors (BLDCs) at APEC 2024. The reference design leverages AmberSemi’s AC Direct DC Enabler power conversion technology and ST’s STM32 microcontrollers (MCUs). AmberSemi also publicly showcased its AC Direct DC Enabler power management device, the company’s first commercial silicon chip, for the first time at the show.
The AC Direct DC Enabler technology extracts DC directly from the AC mains without the use of rectifier bridges, filtering and transformers, simplifying the power supply and reducing component count and PCB footprint. The reference design is comprised of the STM32 MCU Nucleo-65 board, Enabler-SX power board, the motor control power board (ST’s STEVAL-IHM028V2) and three-phase, 120-W BLDC motor.
Key components of reference design for BLDCs (Source: AmberSemi)
The reference design takes a direct AC input through AmberSemi’s AC Direct DC Enabler technology and powers the ST MCU, gate drivers and Hall sensors for brushless motor applications. The demo shows how the two technologies can simplify the power-supply circuitry, reduce the bill of materials, save PCB space and improve efficiency in the design of BLDCs.
The Enabler off-line power solution provides up to 5 W of regulated output, enough to drive today’s requirement of control logic and sensors, with additional headroom for expanded intelligent functionality, compared to typical brushless DC motor-control design, the company said.
The technology also offers selectable output voltages determined by internal, configurable register settings or with a simple external voltage-divider feedback circuit. It also features adjustable current limiting on the VDC output, offering protection and notification via an interrupt signal.
Generation of the DC output is controlled by an internal register selection of regulator switching frequencies, which allows designers to optimize between efficiency, reduced ripple, interference with sensitive system circuitry and board space footprint.
The Enabler also provides integrated functionality for supporting the next generation of intelligent applications in IoT/IIoT/AIoT. Through the integrated SPI communication port combined with an SPI-equipped MCU, like the STM32 MCU, the designer can set alarm bits, protection thresholds and monitor status bits for over-current, over/under-voltage, over-temperature and interrupt signals on the Enabler.
The AC Direct DC Enabler technology simplifies power supply circuitry and reduces component count and PCB footprint. (Source: AmberSemi)
Three core technologies
AmberSemi said its three core, patented technologies, including the AC Direct DC Enabler, are based on a novel way the physics of electricity can be controlled, digitally, in silicon chips. The other two technologies include the Amber Programmable AC Switch Controller, which is reported to enable arc-free switching that is thousands of times faster than today’s standard technologies, and AC Direct Sensing for continuous real-time awareness of the state of electricity.
“AmberSemi discovered a way the physics of electricity is managed differently—digitally—in silicon chips,” said Thar Casey, AmberSemi’s CEO, in a statement. “The company’s mission is to transform electrical product power management architecture globally from outdated, 1950’s-era electro-mechanical power technologies, standard today in every electrical product, to smaller, safer, and smarter silicon chips.”
AmberSemi completed the first silicon tapeout and entered the manufacturing and integration phase for the AC Direct DC Enabler chip in March 2023. It is now entering the commercialization phase for its first semiconductor products. The company also is expanding the design-in evaluations of engineering samples in 2024 with electrical product manufacturing partners.
AmberSemi is demonstrating its new technologies at APEC 2024, booth #639.
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