A Design Platform Optimized for Inner Loop Motor Control

Motion control manufacturers today are under immense pressure due to global competition and regulatory constraints. Many, however, cannot retain the skilled people in house required to develop a complex motor drive product. This fact has actually created a thriving market for motion control consultants, but even though these consultants are usually skilled in the art, manufacturers cannot risk their reputation without some assurance of success. A new approach is thus needed which reduces the schedule and technical risks in developing these complex power systems. This paper introduces a new Motion Control Mixed Signal Chipset, which addresses the shortcomings of conventional development approaches, giving designers a powerful toolset for rapid prototyping of digital motor drives. Key technologies and merits are discussed based on the features it provides. Accelerator The first product to utilize the Motion Control Mixed Signal Chipset, Accelerator, follows the Design Platform model [1], proven to be so effective in the telecommunications and computer industries. In fact, it is expected that many manufacturers will adopt this approach to owning their own drive design because it is a “low pain” approach, even if they’ll use it only infrequently, or if motor drive design is not their core competency. Figure 1. shows the Accelerator AC Servo Design Platform, the first system product to use the new Motion Control Mixed Signal Chipset. This chipset uses a configurable hardware processor for inner loop motor control coupled with International Rectifier's advanced High Voltage IC (HVIC) gate driver and current sense interface chips. The flexible algorithm is implemented in FPGA, so that it can be structurally modified and tuned to quickly build high performance servo drive systems without any programming effort Host Control Processor IR2137