EVLDRIVE102H STDRIVE102H evaluation board for three-phase brushless motors

The EVLDRIVE102H evaluation board is a three-phase inverter based on the STL220N6F7 power MOSFETs. This evaluation board allows a full evaluation of the features of the STDRIVE102H, a triple half-bridge gate driver.

The power stage uses a single shunt topology: the current sensing and the overcurrent protections are implemented using one operational amplifier and one comparator embedded in the STDRIVE102H.

The embedded protections of the STDRIVE102H, such as the UVLO on the driving voltage and the VDS monitoring for each power MOSFET, ensure a safe driving operation of the power stage.

The EVLDRIVE102H evaluation board is thermally protected by exploiting both the hardware thermal shutdown protection embedded in the STDRIVE102H and also an onboard NTC sensor placed close to the power stage. The NTC is connected to the second comparator embedded in the STDRIVE102H, thus implementing a second hardware protection according to the power stage temperature.

The nFAULT diagnostic pin of the STDRIVE102H, is connected to the control board and to an LED indicator, which lights on whenever a protection is triggered.

The EVLDRIVE102H evaluation board can support FOC and six-step motion control algorithms. In case the motor is equipped with positioning sensors, they can be connected to the connector for Hall-effect based sensors and for the encoder, in order to increase the precision of the control algorithms. Nevertheless, sensorless control algorithms can be implemented as well: each output phase of the inverter has a read-out network, which allows the sensing of the phase voltage/BEMF of the motor. In addition, the bus voltage sensing present on the board ensures that the control algorithms are properly implemented.

The EVLDRIVE102H evaluation board is compatible with a wide range of Nucleo control boards, thus allowing the evaluation of the STDRIVE102H together with different STM32 microcontrollers.