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.

Reprinted in its entirety from ARM IQ Vol. 4, No. 4, 2005