San Jose, Calif. — Zilog, Inc.’s thrust into the growing motor control market is its Z8 Encore! MC family, a new generation of flash MCUs targeted at sensorless Brushless DC (BLDC) and AC Induction motor control applications. Available immediately, the new line is initially offered with a choice of 16KByte (Z8FMC16100), 8KByte (Z8FMC08100) or 4Kbyte (Z8FMC04100) of on-chip flash memory. Applications include power tools, household appliances, automotive, pumps and industrial drives.

The rapidly growing motor control market is an extremely diverse sector, with continuously expanding market opportunities in applications such as HVAC, power tools, household appliances, automotive, pumps and industrial drives, according to Zilog. “Today’s motor control applications bring a set of challenges and demands ideal for versatile and full-featured application-specific 8-bit MCUs,” said ZiLOG ZiLOG chairman and CEO James Thorburn.

The company’s new motor control MCUs have been designed to help solve engineering challenges such as fast over-current detection and fault control, and back-EMF sensing at a wide range of speeds including very low speeds, along with extremely smooth start-up and reversal of the direction of rotation. The chips provide for seamless operation of the motor at slower speeds, hence reducing power consumption and increasing energy efficiency. The on-chip integrated A/D converter with its ‘Time Stamp’ feature is coupled to the 3-Phase PWM output module, a feature that allows for very accurate speed control. In addition, the integrated analog modules allow for current sampling, as well as ‘on-the-fly’ implementation of torque or speed control.

The Z8 FMC16100 Series features a 20MHz CPU core, 6-channels of 12-bit PWM with fast shutdown, 8-channel 2s 10-bit ADC with internal reference, reference and one 16-bit timer. The 16KB of onboard Flash memory and 17 general purpose I/Os allow for incorporating a variety of new system functions.

The MCUs offer multiple, integrated communication peripherals (I2C, SPI, UART and LIN), which means that the unit will be compatible with whatever communication protocol the end-user device uses. Peripherals such as the operational amplifier are all integrated in the hardware, compared to a number of competing solutions which, due to design constraints, are integrated in the software. The devices are housed in 32-pin QFN or LQFP packages. The units operate from 2.7-3.6V and run over standard (0 to 70C) and extended (-40 to 105C) temperature ranges.

For details of the chip, see block diagram below.

In many applications, electrical noise generated by the motor can interfere with the microcontroller’s operation. In the Z8 Encore!, MC MCUs, using the highly accurate internal precision oscillator as the system clock source (one of a number of system clock options), provide for a very high level of noise immunity. Other key features include direct routing of the current sensing module to the PWM module, respectively, providing for very fast shutdown of the system during an overcurrent fault.

The MCU is compacted into a 32-pin QFN package requiring only 5x5mm of PCB space. Pricing is $2.50 in volumes of 5000 units. Internal factory programming is available from ZiLOG at a nominal charge. Third-party programming support for the new devices is offered by a number of third-party partners, including BP Micro, HI-LO and Data I/O. ZiLOG’s complete solution for small appliance motor control design is backed by reference designs, software libraries, and application notes to further speed up time to market.

Also available is a motor control-specific development tool suite, which retail at $199.95. This suite is a complete ‘out-of-the-box’ motor control solution, including a BLDC motor, application board, ZDS II with full ANSI C Compiler, motor control software code and an opto-isolated USB smart cable for debugging and programming. The opto-isolated USB smart cable is also offered at $75.00 and is compatible with Z8 Encore! and Z8 Encore! XP products.

In addition, ZiLOG offers an in-circuit emulator (ICE) kit, which includes package adapters and event trace functions. This retails for $1,999.00. ZiLOG Inc. (408) 558-8500

For more information, visit www.Zilog.com.