Microsemi Adds IP for Resolver Sensors to FPGA-Based Multi-Axis Motor Control Solution Targeting Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Industrial Applications

Enhancements Provide Complete Motor Control Solution for Both Sensor and Sensorless Field Oriented Control Applications

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Dec. 15, 2016 -- Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced new enhancements to its field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based deterministic multi-axis motor control solution, with two new intellectual property (IP) offerings, a Resolver interface and a Sinc3 filter, both to support designs using resolver sensors. In addition, the company announced a new IP reference design for brushless DC (BLDC) motors leveraging the Resolver interface.

Microsemi's motor control solution is a comprehensive development environment comprising of a fully-modular IP suite, hardware kit and graphical user interface (GUI) for simplified development and debugging of the design. Microsemi's newly added IP targets motor control applications using a resolver sensor to find the position and speed of a rotor, enabling easier designs. Resolvers are used in applications which operate in harsh/rugged environments such as extreme temperatures, oil and dirt and are also preferred in space applications because of suitability in high-radiation environments as compared to other sensors like optical encoders.

The new enhancements enable Microsemi's FPGA-based multi-axis motor control solution to support various motor types and control algorithms, including BLDC (sensorless, resolver, encoder and Hall sensor) and stepper motors. Along with high performance, reliability, security (secure communication, design security and hardware security) and low power, the solution can also enable easy integration of other functions such as industrial communication, human machine interface (HMI) and sensor interface required for modern drives and industrial control systems.

"Customers now have a compelling, complete solution for designing robotics, medical, 3-D printing, aerospace and defense applications requiring the most deterministic motor control solution, as our award-winning FPGAs combined with our new IP deliver unique capabilities," said Prem Arora, director of marketing for Microsemi. "Designers have a distinct advantage in deterministic, high-precision control systems. Our solution offers many advantages over traditional digital signal processor (DSP) and microcontroller (MCU)-based solutions, including deterministic response, mixed motor control, better performance with multiple motor controls and a high level of integration."

Offering motor control IP support for Microsemi's SmartFusion™2 system-on-chip (SoC) FPGAs, IGLOO™2 FPGAs and RTG4™ FPGAs, Microsemi's solution provides a complete library of pre-tested and hardware-validated IP cores, reference designs for stepper and BLDC in sensor and sensorless configurations, a hardware board with BLDC and stepper motors, and GUI-based software with advanced features for optimizing and debugging the design.

Microsemi's motor control IP suite supports the key motor control algorithms for BLDC in both field oriented control (FOC) sensorless and sensor configurations, as well as the stepper motor using an advanced microstepping algorithm. It is also scalable to a multi-axis motor drive design and features design flexibility as well as integration of system functions to lower total cost of ownership (TCO). In addition, motor control IPs can be easily reused and ported across designs using Microsemi's Libero® SoC Design Suite.

Libero SoC Design Suite offers high productivity with its comprehensive, easy-to-learn, easy-to-adopt development tools for designing with Microsemi's power efficient flash based SmartFusion2, IGLOO2 and RTG4FPGAs. The suite integrates industry standard Synopsys Synplify Pro® synthesis and Mentor Graphics ModelSim® simulation with best-in-class constraints management, debug capabilities and secure production programming support.

With target markets including industrial, medical, automotive, defense and aviation, Microsemi's recently enhanced motor control solution is ideal for high efficiency motors, multi-type motor designs, high rpm performance and high precision stepper motor designs, as these applications require a highly deterministic motor control solution. In addition, the solution enables designs using a resolver with a BLDC and permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) motors. Applications include control systems on spacecraft and satellites; actuator electronics used in aircraft; factory automation and robotics, including industrial tooling (CNC), oil and gas automation machinery; medical diagnostic and surgical equipment; and motor control in electric vehicles.

"The industrial and factory automation and process control market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5 percent from 2016 to 2021," said Les Santiago, research director for wireless and IoT semiconductors, at market research firm IDC. "Key trends driving this growth are automated factories, intelligent motion control, advances in industrial communication and wireless sensor networks."

About Microsemi's New Resolver Interface and Sinc3 Filter IP
The new Resolver interface IP on Microsemi's deterministic multi-axis motor control solution is completely implemented in FPGA fabric and performs two key functions. It has a resolver digital converter (RDC) sub-block which processes resolver signals from its secondary windings and converts them to a digital angle/rotor angle format and speed. It also provides a square wave output signal which is used to drive the primary windings of resolver.

The new Sinc3 filter IP on Microsemi's deterministic multi-axis motor control solution is a digital low-pass filter IP implemented in FPGA fabric to demodulate the output of a delta-sigma ADC. Both the Sinc3 filter and Resolver interface IP use low FPGA resources to ensure complete motor control logic can be implemented in the lowest density FPGA. The Resolver interface IP also has a calibration feature to align resolver 'zero' position to motor 'zero' position and integrates both resolver driver signal as well as demodulation of resolver secondary signals.

Product Availability
Microsemi's FPGA-based deterministic multi-axis motor control solution is available now. For more information, visit http://www.microsemi.com/applications/motor-control#ip-suite and http://www.microsemi.com/applications/motor-control#solutions, or contact sales.support@microsemi.com.

About Microsemi's IGLOO2 FPGAs and SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs
Microsemi's IGLOO^™2 FPGAs and SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs deliver more resources in low density devices, with the lowest power, proven security and exceptional reliability. The devices offer 30-50 percent more power efficiency and are ideal for general purpose functions such as Gigabit Ethernet or dual PCI Express control planes, bridging functions, input/output (I/O) expansion and conversion, video/image processing, system management and secure connectivity. Microsemi FPGAs and SoC FPGAs are used by customers in communications, industrial, medical, defense and aviation markets. PCIe Gen 2 connectivity starts at just 10K logic elements (LEs). SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs offer a 166MHz ARM Cortex-M3 processor with up to 512KB of embedded flash and a complete peripheral set. IGLOO2 FPGAs offer a high performance memory subsystem with up to 512KB embedded flash, 2 x 32 KB embedded static random-access memory (SRAM), two direct memory access (DMA) engines and two double date rate (DDR) controllers. Microsemi also offers a broad range of military, automotive and space grade FPGAs and SoC FPGAs. For more information visit: http://www.microsemi.com/products/fpga-soc/soc-fpga/smartfusion2 and http://www.microsemi.com/products/fpga-soc/fpga/igloo2-fpga.

About Microsemi
Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC) offers a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor and system solutions for aerospace & defense, communications, data center and industrial markets. Products include high-performance and radiation-hardened analog mixed-signal integrated circuits, FPGAs, SoCs and ASICs; power management products; timing and synchronization devices and precise time solutions, setting the world's standard for time; voice processing devices; RF solutions; discrete components; enterprise storage and communication solutions, security technologies and scalable anti-tamper products; Ethernet solutions; Power-over-Ethernet ICs and midspans; as well as custom design capabilities and services. Microsemi is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California and has approximately 4,800 employees globally. Learn more at www.microsemi.com.