New ams Position Sensors for High-Speed Electric Motors to Improve Car Industry’s Electrification Efforts

ams (SIX: AMS), a leading worldwide supplier of high performance sensor solutions, introduces new position sensors that lower system cost and enhance electrification of safety-critical vehicle functions such as power steering, active damper control, and braking for safer, smarter, and greener cars.

The two new position sensors bring new benefits and a lower system cost to the automotive industry. The ams AS5147U is an intelligent magnetic rotary position sensor chip for use in electric motors that run at speeds up to 28,000rpm. The new AS5247U is a dual stacked-die version, which provides the redundancy required for the most demanding ASIL D-rated functional safety applications.

These new products respond to the automotive industry’s efforts to build safer, smarter, greener vehicles:

• Enable more efficient operation of high-speed motors. The sensors incorporate new DFS™ (Dynamic Filter System) technology for more accurate, low-noise position measurements at rotation speed. The DAEC™ (Dynamic Angle Error Correction) technology in the sensors enables almost zero latency at high speed, for ultra-accurate, real-time angle measurement. This combination is unique to ams.
• Embed a comprehensive set of self-diagnostic features to support automotive manufacturers’ programs for complying with the strict specifications of the ISO 26262 functional safety standard. The new AS5x47U sensors also implement cyclic redundancy check (CRC) protection on communications with external devices.
• Lower the cost of implementing motor control – all ams position sensors are inherently immune to interference from stray magnetic fields thanks to their patented differential sensing architecture. With ever more components radiating magnetism, the sensor requires no shielding to protect it from external magnetic fields induced by charging stations, motors, solenoids, high-voltage cabling, and other sources.
• Enable smaller, more reliable motor systems reducing cost of materials and of production.
• Enhance the ams position sensors’ Digital Signal Processor (DSP) core which performs measurement processing inside the chip. Measurement outputs in standard UVW, ABI and PWM formats are easy for automotive designers to implement in new, smarter vehicle control systems.

Alexander Rensink, Manager of the Position Sensors business at ams, said:

"Advanced electrification means valuable reductions in the environmental impact of next-generation vehicles – and is one of the key steps the automotive industry is taking to make cars greener. The latest position sensor technology from ams helps the industry to accelerate the implementation of electrification through easy-to-use position measurements that maximize torque and efficiency in high-speed motors.”

Ready-made measurement solution

The AS5x47U products are highly integrated position measurement solutions incorporating magnetic sensor elements, analog signal conditioning and a powerful DSP-based processing engine. The sensors provide a choice of convenient output formats:

• ABI incremental outputs (industry standard), now in a higher 14-bit resolution vs. 12-bit outputs from earlier versions of the AS5x47 family
• UVW outputs for implementation in the commutation scheme of a brushless DC (BLDC) motor.
• Digital PWM signals which, can be handled directly by an external microcontroller or microprocessor.
• High-speed standard serial peripheral interface (SPI) now protected by 8-bit CRC.

The AS5147U sensor comes in a compact 14-lead TSSOP package. The dual-die AS5247U is equipped with a 7mm x 7mm 32-lead TQFP package. Both sensors are qualified to AEC-Q100 Grade 0.

The AS5147U and AS5247U position sensors are available now in production volumes. For more technical information or to request samples, go to https://ams.com/as5147u and https://ams.com/as5247u.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200603005359/en/