Infineon introduces new MOTIX™ motor gate driver IC to ease transition from 12V to 48V

Infineon Technologies has unveiled the MOTIX™ TLE9140EQW gate driver IC, designed specifically for brushless DC motors in the 24/48 V market. The TLE9140 is specifically designed for automotive motor control applications that require higher voltage levels ranging from 24 V up to a maximum of 72 V. It is particularly suitable for situations where increased system dependability and faster switching performance are essential.

The IC is a perfect addition to Infineon’s MOTIX MCU TLE987x and TLE989x 32-bit motor control SoC solutions. It may also be used as a 48 V BLDC driver with commonly available MCUs. Common uses encompass pumps and fans, windshield wipers, the HVAC module, and e-compressors. Furthermore, the TLE9140 is utilized as a 3-phase motor gate driver in various industries including commercial, construction, and agricultural vehicles, as well as in light electric vehicles such as eBikes, eScooters, and eMotorcycles.

The gate driver integrated circuit provides functional safety in accordance with ISO 26262 ASIL B standards. The device is included within a compact TS-DSO-32 package. The integrated circuit (IC) provides a maximum voltage capacity of 110 V, a gate driver capacity of approximately 230 nC/MOSFET up to 20 kHz, and supports SPI communication. The device features an active low-side freewheeling function when the voltage exceeds the specified limit (V SM overvoltage). Additionally, it includes various diagnostic and protection functions such as timeout-watchdog, drain-source monitoring, overvoltage, undervoltage, cross-current, and over-temperature protection. It also provides off-state diagnostics.

Furthermore, the TLE9140 has Infineon’s unique gate shaping feature, which is an adaptive MOSFET control mechanism capable of compensating for variations in the MOSFET characteristics within the system. The gate current is automatically adjusted to provide the appropriate switching behavior. By implementing slower slew rates, shorter dead times, and shorter rise/fall durations, the system can be optimized in terms of electromagnetic emissions (EMI) while decreasing power dissipation. Infineon’s MOTIX motor control ICs are complemented by a diverse array of software and tools to expedite the assessment and design-in process. The TLE9140 evaluation board is designed to be easily operated by users and allows for quick assessment and development of prototypes. Furthermore, Infineon offers a configuration wizard and a device driver for the TLE9140. These tools provide a straightforward application programming interface (API) for creating control frames for the external bridge driver using the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). Both are accessible at no cost.

04.18.2024

04.18.2024

04.18.2024

Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio holds a Ph. D. in Physics and is a Telecommunications Engineer. He has worked on various international projects in the field of gravitational waves research, designing a thermal compensation system (TCS) and data acquisition and control systems, and on others about x-ray microbeams in collaboration with Columbia University, high voltage systems and space technologies for communications and motor control with ESA/INFN. TCS has been applied to the Virgo and LIGO experiments, which detected gravitational waves for the first time and earned the Nobel Prize in 2017. Since 2007, he has been a reviewer for scientific publications for academics such as Microelectronics Journal and IEEE journals. Moreover, he has collaborated with different electronic industry companies and several Italian and English blogs and magazines, such as Electronics World, Elektor, Mouser, Automazione Industriale, Electronic Design, All About Circuits, Fare Elettronica, Elettronica Oggi, and PCB Magazine, as a technical writer/editor, specializing in several topics of electronics and technology. From 2015 to 2018, he was the editor-in-chief of Firmware and Elettronica Open Source, which are technical blogs and magazines for the electronics industry. He participated in many conferences as a speaker of keynotes for different topics such as x-ray, space technologies, and power supplies. Maurizio enjoys writing and telling stories about Power Electronics, Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, Automotive, IoT, Embedded, Energy, and Quantum Computing. Maurizio has been an AspenCore content editor since 2019. He is currently editor-in-chief of Power Electronics News and EEWeb and a correspondent for EE Times. He is the host of PowerUP, a podcast about power electronics, and the promoter and organizer of the PowerUP Virtual Conference, a summit where each year great speakers talk about the power electronics design trends. Moreover, he has contributed to a number of technical and scientific articles as well as a couple of Springer books on energy harvesting and data acquisition and control systems.