ST introduces motor control demo boards for advanced industrial and consumer products

     The EVSPIN32G4-DUAL demonstration board from STMicroelectronics enables the control of two motors using a single STSPIN32G4 integrated driver. This board facilitates product development and streamlines the design of the printed circuit board (PCB) and the bill of materials (BOM).

     The EVSPIN32G4-DUAL board reduces the time required to bring innovative industrial and consumer products, including as robots, multi-axis factory automation systems, garden equipment, and power tools, to the market. The STSPIN32G4 motor controller has an Arm® Cortex®-M4 microcontroller (MCU) capable of concurrently managing two motors. It possesses sufficient processing capability to execute intricate algorithms such as field-oriented control (FOC) in real-time. Furthermore, the MCU peripherals provide assistance for both sensored and sensorless Field-Oriented management (FOC), as well as sophisticated algorithms for position and torque management. These peripherals also include motor control and general-purpose timers, as well as analog capabilities such as operational amplifiers and comparators.

     The EVSPIN32G4-DUAL demonstration board utilizes a sophisticated three-phase gate driver included in the STSPIN32G4, along with an extra STDRIVE101 gate driver, to regulate two three-phase inverters. These inverters can deliver a maximum current of 10A and operate with a supply voltage of up to 74V. Each gate driver is equipped with its own bootstrap circuitry and safety features, such as drain-source voltage monitoring, prevention of cross-conduction, multiple thermal protection methods, and under-voltage lockout (UVLO).

     Additionally, EVSPIN32G4-DUAL takes advantage of the power-management circuitry integrated into STSPIN32G4, enabling a small and easily obtainable design with a low bill of materials (BOM). This allows for quick assembly during production. The power management system consists of a programmed buck converter that supplies the gate drivers VCC, a low-dropout linear regulator, and a specialized regulator with low quiescent current to provide power to the MCU during standby mode.

     The STSPIN32G4 is part of the STM32 ecosystem,  which offers comprehensive support for application development. This includes tools for project initiation,  middleware bundles, and software samples. The X-CUBE-MCSDK, also known as the motor control software development kit,  provides firmware libraries that include methods such as Field-Oriented Control (FOC) and the STM32 motor-control  workbench. This is a user-friendly graphical program that allows the user to easily select and automatically set up the  EVSPIN32G4-DUAL directly from a menu.