Renesas Electronics launches industry's first programmable motor driver IC that enables sensorless brushless DC motors to achieve full torque at zero speed

New technology increases horsepower, efficiency, speed and reliability while reducing cost and board space

Beijing, China, December 6, 2023 - Renesas Electronics, a global semiconductor solutions provider, today announced the launch of its first sensorless motor driver IC series for brushless DC (BLDC) motor applications. Sa's new patent-pending technology enables the motor to achieve full torque at zero speed without a sensor, which is the first of its kind in the industry. The new motor driver IC enables Renesas customers to design sensorless BLDC motor systems with greater horsepower and speed for a given torque. In addition, power consumption is reduced, reliability is improved, and cost and board space are reduced by reducing the number of components designers need to use.

Renesas has released three new motor driver ICs using new technologies. Among them, RAA306012 is an independent 65V, 3-phase smart driver that can be paired with Renesas or various other MCUs; RAJ306101 integrates Renesas RX13T 32-bit MCU and RAA306012 in a single package, thereby reducing circuit board space and cost , improved reliability; RAJ306102 integrates Renesas RL78/G1F 16-bit MCU with RAA306012, bringing similar integration advantages.

The ability to achieve full torque at zero speed without a sensor is enabled by two Renesas innovations: Enhanced Inductive Sensing (EIS) for stable position detection when the motor comes to a complete stop; During operation, the motor rotor position recognition (MRI) method is used. At higher speeds, new motor driver ICs take a traditional approach. Both the new EIS and MRI algorithms incorporate cutting-edge patent-pending technology developed by Renesas.

Davin Lee, Vice President of the Advanced Analog Division at Renesas said: "The new sensorless design of the motor driver IC offers many advantages in terms of cost, space, power consumption and reliability. Now, our customers can "This industry first is an example of Renesas combining its technological capabilities with deep application knowledge to create solutions that meet clear market needs."

Peter Korošec, President and CEO of Domel Inc, a global supplier of electric motors, vacuum cleaner motors, blowers and components, said: "We are very much looking forward to adopting sensorless technology in new products that once had to use sensors. This breakthrough from Renesas will Allowing us to build new products for our customers based on optimal size, cost and reliability.”

Key Features of Renesas’ New Motor Driver IC

• High level of integration including driver, power management and current sensing

• Adaptive and adjustable dead time drives efficiency improvements

• Charge pump maintains stable gate drive voltage at programmed settings

• Programmable gate drive voltage drives N MOSFETs and GaN FETs

• Rich sensing blocks enable higher precision and wide-speed RPM driving

• 16 programmable slew rate settings to minimize electromagnetic radiation

• Supports all types of motor control algorithms including trapezoidal, sinusoidal and FOC

• Rich protection functions improve system security

Successful product portfolio

Renesas has combined the new motor driver IC with the many compatible devices in its portfolio to create a broad "successful product portfolio" including cordless vacuum cleaners and 20V cordless leaf blowers. These "win portfolios" are based on compatible and seamlessly working devices with technically proven system architectures, resulting in optimized, low-risk designs to accelerate time to market. Renesas has now launched more than 400 "successful product portfolios" based on various products in its product lineup, enabling customers to accelerate the design process and bring products to market faster.

Supply information

RAA306012, RAJ306101 and RAJ306102 are available now. The RAA306012 is available in a 7mm x 7mm 48-pin QFN package. The RAJ306101 and RAJ306102 are available in an 8mm x 8mm 56-pin QFN package. Renesas also provides evaluation kits for each new device.