Introduction:

An electric motor has a stator and a rotor. Both are electrically/magnetically induced to produce magnetic fields either through current fed coils or permanent magnets. The combination of repulsive and attractive magnetic fields across stator and rotor help the motor to convert fed-electrical power into rotational mechanical energy. In the traditional DC motors, the electrical energy is fed to the rotor (two power the copper coils) via a conducting carbon brush, which is pressed on to the metal leads on the rotor.
The drawback of brush-based motors is they produce electric-sparks resulting in electromagnetic noise and also requires maintenance. The electronic systems such as computers and such electro magnetic noise (EMI) sensitive devices are susceptible to noise produced by brushed motors.
Brushless DC (BLDC) Motor operates with a controller via electronic communication. BLDC motors rely on a combination of sensors, magnets, and electronic devices to switch winding current. The electronics devices together does the same function as mechanical commutators used on standard DC motors, but without physical contact and hence they are frictionless, clean with no carbon dust, quiet in terms of electrical noise and maintenance free.
So BLDC motors need semiconductor ICs. Here in this article we provide you with list of some latest ICs for your brushless DC motor control circuit design. Before selecting the IC if you need some education on how brushless DC motor works, please refer to the links below.
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Advantages of Brushless DC Motor
· Absence of brushes
· Better efficiency
· Improved mechanical reliability, electrical noise immunity and torque-to-weight properties
· Generates less noise
· Smaller and lighter than brushed DC motor

Disadvantages of Brushless DC Motor
· Initial cost is more expensive than brushed DC motor
· Complex in nature
· A controller is required
· Requires additional system wiring for electronic commutation circuitry

Specification table BLDC motor driver ICs from some of the key vendors of motion control ICs (sorted based on Manufacturer Name)

Product Highlights:

TI's new device DRV8301, an integrated three-phase brushless motor pre-drivers, can drive sub-10-A to 60-A external FETs, provides current scalability, improved thermal performance and efficiency in brushless DC (BLDC).

SPI-6631M, a new 3-phase brushless motor driver from Sanken Electric is a 3-phase brushless DC motor driver. SPI-6631M integrates a pre-drive circuit and output elements (6 MOSFETs) on a single chip through the use of BCD process technology, and by using a compact surface mounting package.

The all-in-one motor controller IC from Diodes Inc for single-coil low-power brushless DC fans and motors features necessary drive, protection and interface functionality, the SOT89-5L packaged AH5798 is suitable for small fan and motor applications, including cooling fans for netbooks and notebooks.

AH5798 Integrates a full-bridge driver featuring soft switching, the controller requires no external driver components but supports average source and sink currents up to 300mA. AH5798 has built-in Hall sensor and amplifier.

Holtek's HT45FM2C is suitable for three phase brushless DC motor fan applications.

KMZ60, a magnetoresistive angle sensor with integrated amplifier IC from NXP Semiconductors N.V. targets device includes electronic power steering (EPS) or window wiper systems in cars and also to control BLDC motors in industrial applications.

Toshiba's newly developed TB6586FG/AFG motor controller IC has a 150°-turn-on angle and employs a lead angle control function that sets the optimum turn-on point to enable highly efficient driving of three-phase brushless motors.

World's first dual channel brushless controllers by Roboteq: HBL2350 is capable of driving two brushless DC motors at 75 Amps and can accept commands from analog/pedal, R/C radio, USB or RS232 interface. http://www.roboteq.com/brushless-dc-motor-controllers/hbl2350-dual-75a-brushless-dc-motor-controller-with-encoder-hall-inputs

Roboteq's VBL 1650 provides 150A Brushless with Hall sensor inputs. http://www.roboteq.com/brushless-dc-motor-controllers/vbl1650-150a-brushless-dc-motor-controller-with-hall-sensor-inputs

NXP provides the application note of the low cost ARM7 based LPC2141 microcontroller for sensored brushless DC motor control. www.nxp.com/documents/application_note/AN10661.pdf

Atmel provides the application note on Brushless DC Motor Control using ATmega32M1 http://www.atmel.com/Images/doc8138.pdf

Freescale provides various reference design guides and application notes related to the Brushless DC Motor Control. http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=DRMTRBLDCMTRS&fsrch=1&sr=1

Sensitron Semiconductor provides various product lines related to Brushless Motor Controllers/Drivers - http://www.rsm.com/motorcontrollers.htm