25 Jul 2012

TI claims 1.8A brushed DC motor driver is "industry’s smallest"

Texas Instruments has expanded its family of low-voltage DRV8x motor drivers with what is described as the industry’s smallest 1.8-A brushed DC motor driver.

The DRV8837 is said to be 75 percent smaller than the nearest competitor, enabling smaller, sleeker, more innovative system design.

It also extends battery life and improves thermal performance in battery-powered or low-voltage motion control applications by reducing RDS(ON) by 50 percent and sleep current by 75 percent, compared to existing devices.

Key features:

• Extends battery life: Low RDS(ON) of 280 milliohms and an ultra-low sleep current as low as 35 nA improve thermal performance and extend battery life in applications such as toys, gas or water smart meters, electronic locks, micro printers and cameras.

• Improves performance: Separate logic and motor supplies improve performance in battery powered applications during start up and stall conditions.

• Wide/low-voltage operating range: 1.8-V to 11-V operating range supports up to 6-stack alkaline or 2-stack Li-ion battery pack applications.

• Reduces board space: Tiny 2-mm x 2-mm WSON package enables smaller, sleeker design.

• Advanced on-chip protection: Over-current, over-temperature, shoot-through and under-voltage protection increase system reliability and reduce design complexity.

The DRV8837 evaluation module features on-board speed, sleep and direction controls, micro-USB connection for easy evaluation/power-up and on-board MSP430 microcontroller (MCU) to fully evaluate DRV8837 performance with the added flexibility to use an external MCU.

DRV8x motor drivers integrate many of the functional blocks needed in a motor system, such as gate drive circuitry, MOSFETs, protection circuitry and current regulation circuitry.

According to TI, these motor drivers make it easy to drive a wide range of stepper, brushed DC and brushless DC motors in portable and wired applications, such as printers, video surveillance, fans, pumps, valves, power tools, textile manufacturing machines, e-locks and consumer electronics.

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