Presentation Description: This presentation will discuss the design of a highly integrated motor drive for 48 V battery-powered applications, using integrated GaN power stages together with a state-of-the-art microcontroller unit (MCU) and tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) current sensors. The board incorporates all necessary functions, including auxiliary power supplies, high-side inrush limiting with fast disconnect, protection against load over-currents and bridge short circuits, and communication options for CAN, UART, debug, or analog throttling. The thermal design leverages screw terminals and thick copper layers to provide enough mass and thermal capacitance to ride through transient events, while a steady-state power limit of ~1 kW (20 ARMS) has been validated experimentally with forced air cooling. The 34 mm “coin-sized” form factor of this motor drive enables easy integration within the motor housing, for space-constrained applications such as humanoid robotics, e-bikes, drones, and tools.
