Building a three-phase PMSM sensorless FOC with Atmel

A three-phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) sensorless FOC (Field Oriented Control) is typically found in a number of home appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers, dryers, refrigerators, air conditioners and pumps.

Key design considerations for a three-phase PMSM sensorless FOC include power efficient and acoustically quiet motor operation to meet governmental efficiency standards, low BOM cost and a compact, scalable FOC form factor.

“And that is precisely why Atmel’s XMEGA AVR (D or E series), coupled with our AVR1636 reference design, offers developers versatile integration capabilities along with comprehensive application support – facilitating FOC implementation that allows power efficient and acoustically quiet motor control application,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces.

“More specifically, there are three 16-bit timer/counters with up to four output compare or input capture channels, a high-resolution extension and advanced waveform extension (AWeX), an 8-channel Event System which allows peripherals to directly send, receive and react to synchronous or asynchronous events in a short, guaranteed response time.”

Additional integrated features include a feature-rich 300KS/s 12bit ADC with programmable gain amplifier up to 64x – with temperature, supply voltage and reference inputs; EEPROM for configuration parameters storage; two USART, one SPI and one I2C Serial Interfaces for system communication.

In terms of software and application support, Atmel offers AVR1636 reference design hardware; a firmware and PC configuration utility; AVR1610 pre-certified Class B library and design guide; Atmel Studio 6; Atmel Software Framework; Atmel Gallery; and free software libraries of production-ready source code.

Interested in learning more about building a three-phase PMSM sensorless FOC with Atmel’s AVR XMEGA? Be sure to check out some of the links below.

• Atmel ATXMEGA AVR Microcontroller Home Page
• Atmel AVR1636 Configurable Three Phase PMSM FOC Application Note
• Atmel AVR1610 Guide to IEC 60730 Class B Compliance with XMEGA
• Atmel Studio 6 Home Page
• Atmel Software Framework Home Page

Going beyond the IDE with Atmel

In today’s complex and feature-rich embedded world, a comprehensive microcontroller (MCU) software framework with an easy integration of software libraries and tools is becoming increasingly important for design teams.

As Atmel’s Joerg Bertholdt notes, a truly integrated development platform comprises a combination of software and hardware – including the software framework and an app store.

“That is why Atmel offers the Xplained Pro evaluation kits, a development board and kit which works with Atmel’s IDE, software framework and Atmel Gallery,” the Director of Marketing, MCU Tools and Software, explained in recent Electronics Weekly article.

“The kits feature a range of professional ARM-Cortex-M4 based Atmel SAM4 microcontroller boards that are complemented by optional interface, display and prototyping boards. These boards are fully supported across Atmel Studio 6, Atmel Software Framework and Atmel Gallery, providing devs with immediate access to over 2,000 ready-to-run project examples.”

Simply put, Atmel’s comprehensive platform allows designers to more easily prototype and accelerate time to market.

“Moving beyond the traditional integrated development environment, the platform-based approach yields yet further developer productivity and efficiency,” Bertholdt continued.

“By combining the editor, compiler and debug functions with quick and easy access to a host of libraries, middleware and specialist tools the integrated development tools platform approach yields efficiencies across the whole design, development, test and prototype process.”

Bertholdt also discussed FreeRTOS, one of the real-time operating systems available in Atmel’s Gallery.

“By accessing FreeRTOs, designers can implement a hassle-free deployment in their application without having to worry about driver integration. Since this is integrated into ASF, it comes complete with a project configuration wizard and example projects to ease the application development process,” he added.

Interested in learning more about how going beyond the IDE with Atmel? Be sure to check out the full text of Joerg’s article here.

Atmel ships new ARM Cortex M0+ processor-based MCUs in volume

Atmel is now shipping its recently launched SAM D20 microcontroller (MCU) lineup in production quantities. As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the SAM D20 is the first series in a new family of ultra-low power embedded Flash microcontrollers based on ARM’s powerful Cortex-M0+ processor.

“In this era of the Internet of Things (IoT), products used in building automation, consumer electronics, smart metering and industrial controls are becoming smarter and more connected,” Mr. Ingar Fredriksen, Atmel’s Sr. Director of Flash-based Microcontrollers, explained. “With Atmel’s new SAM D20 MCU available to the mass market, designers now have access to a new Cortex M0+ based MCU to easily add more intelligence and connectivity to next-gen IoT devices.”

According to Mr. Fredriksen, the new series combines innovative and proven technologies, including intelligent peripherals with Atmel’s Event System as well as capacitive touch support for button, slider and wheel capability and proximity sensing.
The new SAM D20 series is also supported by the latest version of Atmel Studio and Atmel Software Framework, the integrated development platform of choice for developing and debugging ARM Cortex-M and Atmel AVR MCU-based applications.

“We’ve built our decades of innovation and experience in embedded Flash MCU technology into our new Atmel SAM D20 family,” Mr. Fredriksen continued. “That is why the SAM D20 sets a new benchmark for flexibility and ease-of-use, while combining the performance and energy efficiency of the ARM Cortex-M0+ core with an optimized architecture and peripheral set. We’ve brought true differentiation into this new family, making it the ideal MCU for low-power, cost-sensitive industrial and consumer applications.”

Additional information about Atmel’s SAM D20 can be found here.