Vincent Onde
STMicroelectronics

Three-phase brushless motors offer many benefits including economy, reliability and high efficiency, but also exhibit poor dynamic performance. By implementing proper control algorithms (such as field-oriented control) on an ARM7 processor-based MCU, three-phase brushless motors can be made as dynamically responsive as separately—excited DC motors. This enables 3-phase brushless motors to be used in high-end motor drives for automotive, robotics, and industrial frequency converters, as well as some appliance applications. The article will demonstrate how these control schemes can be implemented on ARM7 processor-based products with the appropriate peripherals needed for state-of-the-art PWM generation and signal conditioning, avoiding the necessary learning phases associated with dedicated DSP or hybrid processor architectures.