Power Integrations’ Latest MotorXpert Software Drives FOC Motors Without Shunts or Sensors

Power Integrations (NASDAQ: POWI), the leader in high-voltage integrated
circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, announced MotorXpertT v3.0,
a software suite for configuration, control and sensing of BLDC inverters
that utilize the company’s BridgeSwitchT motor-driver ICs. The latest
release of the software incorporates Power Integrations’ shuntless and
sensorless technology for field-oriented control (FOC), adding support for
advanced modulation schemes and unconditional startup under any load
condition, along with significant improvements to the host user interface
and debugging tools.

Cristian Ionescu-Catrina, product marketing manager at Power Integrations
said: “MotorXpert simplifies single- and three-phase sensorless motor-drive
designs. In this version 3.0 release, we have added a two-phase modulation
scheme, which is ideal for applications that work in high temperature
environments such as hot-water circulation pumps. The new modulation reduces
inverter switching losses by 33 percent. Version 3.0 also features a
five-fold improvement to our waveform visualization tool and an enhanced
zoom function, giving developers substantially more information for motor
tuning and debugging.”

MotorXpert 3.0 comprises three main sections:

Sophisticated mathematical algorithms resident on the local MCU or DSP
construct accurate feedback signals from the BridgeSwitch IC and provide
real-time control of the switching patterns.
A host-side application interprets inverter actions and displays critical
data in actionable format for engineering analysis.
The easy-to-use control interface permits development engineers to
experiment and quickly converge to a final product.
MotorXpert suite is MCU-agnostic and includes a comprehensive porting guide
to simplify deployment with a wide range of MCUs. It is implemented in
common C language to MISRA standards.

The MotorXpert v3.0 host-side application includes a graphical user
interface with Power Integrations’ digital oscilloscope visualization tool
that makes it easy to design and configure parameters and operation and
simplifies debugging. Parameter tool tips and a tuning assistant improve the
development process, and the intuitive parameter list provides easy motor
tuning. The new version also features both V/F and I/F control, which
permits motor startup in any load condition. A selectable two-phase
modulation scheme allows developers to trade off temperature of the inverter
vs torque ripple which is beneficial in applications such as hot water
circulation pumps, reducing heatsinking requirements and enclosure cost.
Development time is greatly reduced by the included single- and three-phase
code libraries with sensorless support, reference designs, and other tools
such as a power supply design and analysis tool.

The BridgeSwitch IC is a half-bridge motor driver of low RDSON FREDFET
switches, controllers and drivers in a thermally efficient package.
Sensorless feedback, fault reporting, and self and load protection are also
available for applications from 30 W to 1 HP (750 W).

Applications include indoor and outdoor air conditioning fans, refrigerator
compressors, fluid pumps, washing machine and dryer drums, range hoods,
industrial fans and heat pumps.

Availability & Resources

MotorXpert v3.0 is available at no cost with an end-user license agreement.
The software suite comes with a quick start guide, software manual, MCU
porting guide, single- and three-phase software libraries and a video
tutorial. For further information, contact a Power Integrations sales
representative or one of the company’s authorized worldwide
distributors-DigiKey, Newark, Mouser and RS Components, or visit power.com.

About Power Integrations

Power Integrations, Inc. is a leading innovator in semiconductor
technologies for high-voltage power conversion. The company’s products are
key building blocks in the clean-power ecosystem, enabling the generation of
renewable energy as well as the efficient transmission and consumption of
power in applications ranging from milliwatts to megawatts. For more
information, please visit www.power.com.