STMicroelectronics PWD5T60 three-phase driver

STMicroelectronics has launched the PWD5T60 three-phase driver with a ready-to-use evaluation board that supports flexible control strategies. Suitable for applications up to 500 V, the PWD5T60 integrates a gate driver and six power MOSFETs with RDS(ON) of 1.38Ω, enabling the device to achieve an enhanced energy to area rating. Zero-drop bootstrap diodes are also built-in, requiring minimal external components to complete the circuit in only 30% of the board area of an equivalent driver built with discrete components. The propagation delays of high-side and low-side MOSFETs are closely matched, which eliminates cycle distortion and increases flexibility to set the operating frequency for optimum response and energy efficiency.

The EVLPWD-FAN-PUMP evaluation board, released at the same time, helps developers explore the value this driver can deliver in projects up to 100 W. The board combines the PWD5T60 with an STM32G0 microcontroller (MCU) that can handle field-oriented control (FOC) or 6-step control of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) and brushless DC (BLDC) motors. With configurable single or three-shunt sensing and leveraging the PWD5T60’s high feature integration to achieve a compact, circular form factor, the board is optimised for use with fans and pumps. The board also features a power-supply stage to generate 12 V and 3.3 V supply voltages for the application and comes with a complete AC line filter at the input.

The PWD5T60 has a smart shutdown feature that uses a comparator for fast-acting overcurrent prevention. The output turns off immediately when a fault is detected, while the subsequent output-disable duration is programmed by connecting a capacitor and optional pull-up resistor to a dedicated pin. The turnoff response is unaffected by these components, letting product developers optimise the duration to allow time for faults to clear while enabling instant turn-off.

The driver has a wide input supply voltage range from 9–20 V for optimum flexibility, while CMOS/TTL-compatible logic inputs down to 3.3 V simplify interfacing with a host controller.

The PWD5T60 is in full production and available in a compact 12 x 12 mm VFQFPN package only 0.95 mm high.