New Industry Products

Three-Phase Brushless Fan Motor Driver IC Has a Rotation Speed Control

April 15, 2018 by Paul Shepard

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation announced the launch of the TC78B025FTG, a three-phase brushless motor driver IC with a rotation speed control (closed loop control) function, for application in small fans used in home appliances and industrial equipment. Mass production will start from April.

The cooling fans used in servers and other must be small and rotate at high speeds with uniform accuracy. Uniformity is best achieved by using a speed-feedback method to suppress fluctuations in rotation speed caused by changes in power supply voltage and load.

Until now, this has required the use of microcomputers, but Toshiba’s new solution achieves flexible rotation speed control without external microcomputers by incorporating a non-volatile memory (NVM). This also allows easy system configuration.

In addition, TC78B025FTG implements a 1-Hall drive system and current sense resistor-elimination system to reduce the number of external components and contribute to the space saving on boards. Industry-leading low ON resistance (0.2Ω (typ.) (total of high and low sides)) reduces the IC’s self-heating during operation, so extending support to large current drives.

Main features include:

  • Built-in rotation speed control (Closed loop control) function
    • Rotation speed control uses the speed-feedback method to suppress rotation speed fluctuations caused by changes in power supply voltage and load. The IC’s non-volatile memory (NVM) supports a wide range of speeds, from hundreds to tens of thousands rotations per minute.
  • Board space saving and size reduction
    • Mounting on the constricted board space of small fans is secured by adoption of a small package (4mm × 4mm). The 1-Hall drive and current detection resistor-free system (ACDS) reduce external components.
  • High efficiency drive
    • Toshiba’s motor drive technology (InPAC) realizes efficiency driving across a wide rotation range without adjustment burden. In addition, since the output ON resistance is as low as 0.2Ω (typ.), self-dissipation during IC operation can be reduced to achieve a high efficiency drive.