EYE ON NPI - Infineon Technologies PSOC Control C3 Microcontroller Line #EYEonNPI #digikey @digikey
40This week's EYE ON NPI is Pretty Sweet Of Course! It's the Infineon Technologies PSOC Control C3 Microcontroller Line (https://www.digikey.com/short/8cw3wpp8) a souped-up microcontroller that is a perfect choice for engineers who need to do some motor control while also managing buttons, LEDs, displays, and other product requirements all on one chip. With a the high-speed ADCs on board, you can manage your BLDC motors and handle the feedback loop in firmware for dynamic tuning without the expense of a specialized co-processor.
The PSOC Control C3 series comes in two flavors, the Entry and Main line chips (https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/microcontroller/32-bit-psoc-arm-cortex-microcontroller/32-bit-psoc-control-arm-cortex-m33-mcu/psoc-control-c3m/). Both are based on the Arm Cortex M33 which means you know that your CMSIS-based code will be an easy compile and you can use existing pre-compiled libraries. The M33 line is an upgrade to the M3 and M4, giving you the same or better clock speeds and FPU/DSP commands you get with the M4 plus TrustZone and better power efficiency.
The Entry line runs at 100MHz, with max 256k Flash 64K SRAM, 10-bit DAC, a 6 MSPS 12-bit ADC, 16 x 16-bit + 4 x 32-bit TCPWMs and a "CORDIC math coprocessor". The Main line can run at 180MHz, same Flash/SRAM and TCPWMs, and has a 12 MSPS ADC plus 4-channel HRPWM with less than 100ps resolution. Both come in 48 and 64 pin TQFP/QFN varieties, the Main line also has an 80-pin version. (There will also apparently be a Performance line, so far un-announced, which may offer more memory / higher frequency). Both have FPU/DSP support, so you'll be able to process the 6 or 12-MSPS ADC data quickly. And the CORDIC processor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORDIC) optimizes trig functions like sin/cos/tan/ln so you don't need lookup tables for performing these floating point calculations. These are particularly useful when handling motor motion calculations since they are often sinusoidal and we need to convert to-and-from the ADC measurements to the precision PWM timers.
There's a huge selection of Arm processors out there, but the PSOC Control C3 has the best peripherals for motor control: it's rare to see 12MSPS 12-Bit ADC plus so many 16-bit and 32-bit timers with high-speed PWM. The CORDIC co-processor especially will make managing BLDC or Stepper motors a breeze. Plus you still get all the peripherals you would expect of a microcontroller: I2C, UART, SPI, CAN bus, DAC, IRQs, and lots of GPIO. That means you can handle all the other stuff your product has to do while also managing the motor in the background, saving you lots of space and money in BOM costs and fewer integration woes when trying to communicate between a main processor and a motor-control co-processor.
The KITPSC3M5EVK eval board (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/infineon-technologies/KITPSC3M5EVK/25880112) is in stock right now if you want a ready-to-go kit at a good price. It comes with 'Arduino shield compatible" pinouts plus a USB / debug interface, and MikroBus connector for expansion. You can also pick up just the bare chip - for example the PSC3M5FDS2ACQ1AQSA1 (https://www.digikey.com/short/8cw3wpp8) is a fancy version with 256K of flash, the 12 Msps ADC, and hall encoder in a TQFP-64 package. It's in stock now at DigiKey for immediate shipment! Order today and you can have a powerful microcontroller with excellent motor feedback control in your hands by tomorrow morning.