Munich, Germany — Infineon Technologies has introduced a family of 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) with field oriented control (FOC) capability and a new Digital Application virtual Engineer (DAvE) drive software configuration tool kit, which is part of a complete development environment for industrial and automotive motor control applications. These new MCUs and software development tools are designed for embedded industrial and automotive motor control applications.

Infineon says it's the first microcontroller supplier to offer 8-bit MCUs capable of supporting FOC, a technique for operating electric motors that results in higher efficiency operation at all speeds. Implemented on its 8-bit XC886 and XC888 families, Infineon brings FOC motor control solutions to price-sensitive appliance applications such as washing machines and dishwashers.

Compared to current solutions on the market, in which FOC execution engages the whole central processing unit (CPU) load, FOC execution on the Infineon XC886 and XC888 microcontrollers only requires 58 percent of the CPU's performance, providing plenty of headroom for applications such as system control and communication, for example with the display microcontroller. Unlike most hard-coded competitive FOC implementations, the MCUs with FOC provide the additional benefit of software re-programmability adding flexibility and potential for differentiation to the application, said the company.

Typically a 16- or 32-bit MCU or digital signal processor (DSP) is required to handle the complex trigonometric equations, said the company, and compared to these solutions, the 8-bit XC886/8 families offer the full benefits of FOC at about 50 percent of the overall electronic BOM cost. The computing performance of XC886 is boosted by a 16-bit vector computer performing rotation and scaling operations. This combined with the PWM unit CapCom6E and a fast 8-channel 10-bit AD converter addresses the implementation challenges of FOC on an 8051-compliant MCU, according to the company.

The DAvE drive is Infineon's application code generator for the company's 8-bit (XC886/8) and 16-bit (XC164CM/CS) MCU families. It provides initialization, configuration and driver code to ease programming. The new DAvE Drive helps to reduce the software development time for brushless direct current (BLDC) motor controls due to quick and easy configuration of complex peripherals.

The DAvE Drive software tool is included in the BLDC Drive Application Kit which is a modular extension of Infineon's 8- and 16-bit Easy Kits. The combined tools comprise a complete development environment for industrial and automotive motor control applications consisting of microcontroller hardware, software, power semiconductors, and motor drive.

Infineon will exhibit its microcontrollers, sensors and power semiconductors for embedded applications at the Embedded World 2007 show at booth 432 in Hall 12.

Pricing: The XC886/8 products are priced at approximately Euro 1.80 (US $ 2.35) each in quantities of 10,000. The DAvE Drive development tool including microcontroller hardware, software, power semiconductors, motor drive, documentation, etc. is available at a price of Euro 299 (US $ 350) per unit.
Availability: The XC886/8 microcontrollers with FOC capability are available now. They are offered in green TQFP-48 and TQFP-64 packages for the -40°C to 125°C temperature range.
Datasheets: www.infineon.com/XC886 and www.infineon.com/dave
Product information: www.infineon.com/microcontroller, www.infineon.com/sensors and www.infineon.com/power

Infineon Technologies AG, 1-866-951-9519, www.infineon.com