-Motor driver IC achieves high efficiency at wide range of rotational speeds without complicated phase adjustment-

TOKYO — (BUSINESS WIRE) — September 30, 2015 — Toshiba Corporation's (TOKYO:6502) Semiconductor & Storage Products Company today announced the launch of "TC78B016FTG", a three-phase brushless motor driver IC that achieve high efficiency at a wide range of rotational speeds without any need for complicated phase adjustment. It is optimized for the small fan motors used in home appliances and industrial equipment. Sample shipments start today, with mass production scheduled for January 2016.

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Toshiba: a three-phase brushless motor driver IC "TC78B016FTG" (Photo: Business Wire)

The home appliance and industrial equipment market sees constant demand for devices that save energy while improving efficiency. Demand for noise reduction to achieve quieter environments is also strong, with the result that use of inverters for fan motor control is more widespread than ever.

Conventionally, improving the high efficiency of existing products requires phase adjustment of the motor voltage and the motor current to each fan motor.
Realizing high efficiency over a wide range of rotational speed range—from almost zero rotations per minute (rpm) at start-up to high speeds of several 1000rpm—takes time and requires many parts for phase adjustment.

The new IC introduces Toshiba’s latest control technology, which automatically adjusts the phase of the motor voltage and the motor current. It achieves a drive equal in efficiency to an MCU control system across a wide range of rotational speeds, a high efficiency system, and a sine wave drive system that reduces noise from the fan motor.

Furthermore, since automatic phase adjustment is secured with a simple configuration, development times are shortened by reducing software development and time-consume adjustment of MCU characteristics required in the conventional approach to development.

Key Features

1. High efficiency at a wide range of rotational speed due to simple phase adjustment.
   Simple phase adjustment of the voltage and current: product developers can achieve high efficiency drives with a simple set for various motor.
   Even if the position of the Hall sensor is shifted, a signal correction function is built-in, ensuring easy configuration.
2. Low noise, low vibration
   A sine wave drive system generates a smooth current waveform that delivers lower motor noise and vibration than a rectangular wave drive system.
3. Low dissipation
   Since the output resistance is small (0.23Ω typ.), the IC’s power dissipation is kept low when the motor is operating.
4. Small package
   WQFN36 package (5mm × 5mm × 0.8mm). It can be implemented in the limited space of a small fan.