TDK expands motor controller portfolio

TDK Corp. has expanded its Micronas embedded motor controller portfolio, adding the first members of the new HVC 5x family of programmable system-on-chip (SoC) motor controllers. The HVC 5221D and HVC 5222C devices are moving from a “one size fits all” approach used with its HVC 4x predecessors. They will address the same applications but will instead focus on smaller size, lower cost and fewer external components. The TDK-Micronas HVC 4x and HVC 5x families provide a dual wafer fab sourcing strategy with largely compatible devices.

(Source: TDK)

The controllers drive small stepper, brushed (BDC) and brushless (BLDC) motors in automotive and industrial applications. The HVC 5221D targets stepper and brushed DC-motor applications with four 500-mA motor terminals for stepper and DC motors in expansion valves and water valves.

The HVC 5222C addresses three-phase brushless motor applications with peak currents up to 1-A phase current for grille shutters and small fans. Both provide seven general-purpose I/O ports and several automotive diagnostic and safety features in a small form-factor 24-pin QFN package. All HVC 5x controllers are pin compatible.

Common features across the HVC 4x and HVC 5x families include a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 CPU core, 20-MHz system, 35-kHz watchdog oscillator, 32k or 64k flash memory versions with 2k or 4k SRAM, and a 12-bit, 1-µs ADC for various measurements. Other features include digital periphery supporting motor-control algorithms and a LIN transceiver and UART for communication and auto-addressing using the BSM method. The devices are qualified according to AEC-Q100 for temperature Grade 1.

Applications include expansion valves for refrigerant chillers, water valves for coolant distribution, fans for seat cooling and heating, HVAC flaps for passenger air distribution, automatic sunshades, grill shutters and spoilers to lower aerodynamic resistance and charge-door actuators.

Samples are currently available, with production planned for early in 2024. The HVC 4x and HVC 5x are sourced from different wafer fabs to improve supply resilience.