TI Controllers and Tier Electronics Boost White Goods' Efficiency By Up To 30%

TI Controllers and Tier Electronics Boost White Goods' Efficiency By Up To 30%

June 01, 2006

Three-Phase Asynchronous Motors Incorporate FOC for Quieter, Faster and More Efficient White Goods at Lower System Costs

    DALLAS, June 1 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- As fuel prices
and electric power rates continue to climb, the incentives
for energy savings have never been greater.  Embracing this
opportunity for conservation, Tier Electronics LLC and Texas
Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN) today announced
that TI's digital signal processing- (DSP) based
TMS320C2000(TM) controllers are the key component in Tier's
motor control system for washing machines and other white
goods. System designers using Tier's Mini Universal Power
Converter (UPC) can harness the processing power and
efficiency of TI's C2000(TM) controller that, when combined
with Intelligent Power Modules (IPM) and pressure-stamped
heat sinks, can reduce costs by up to 25% by halving
component counts and can deliver up to 30% better
efficiency compared to conventional microcontroller (MCU)
or discrete-based designs. The reduction in parts count
will also improve MTBF (mean time between failure)
ratings.

    Efficient Design Delivers Impressive Results 

    Many of today's white goods use conventional single
phase motors that require simple control algorithms and
hardware, but are noisy, bulky and waste energy.  To avoid
this problem, designers have to maximize efficiency, making
sure that motors are used to the fullest extent in order to
minimize the amount of power wasted.  The UPC design
integrates TI's C2000 controller, enabling use of a
multi-phase alternating current (AC) motor that can be
controlled with an adaptive-based field oriented control
(AFOC).  Multi-phase AC motors controlled with an adaptive
algorithm are smaller, run more quietly and provide precise
speed and torque control based on a machine's load to avoid
wasting energy. The AFOC scheme strives to maintain an
angle between the rotor flux and the stator flux that is
optimized to improve motor efficiencies, while actively
controlling the torque, therefore significantly improving
overall performance.  The AFOC vector control reduces the
voltage and current peaks and valleys associated with
scalar and traditional FOC control, which also produces
quieter appliances.

    Additionally, digital signal controllers provide
improved pulse width modulation (PWM) control compared to
conventional control systems, keeping a motor's total
harmonic distortion (THD) at a minimum over a wide
operating range. This also leads to lower operating
temperatures, higher efficiency, better power factor
ratings and lower materials costs, especially in regards to
the amount of copper required for the motor. The digital
signal controller's ability to produce cleaner waveforms
translates into the ability to use a motor that is smaller
and does not need external sensors. 

    In addition to utilizing the powerful computing
capabilities of TI's C2000 controllers, Tier employed
innovative technologies to achieve its advanced motor
controller design. Intelligent Power Module (IPM)
technology reduces Bill of Material (BOM) and manufacturing
costs with its high level of integration of components
including insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and
free wheel diodes. Advanced built-in protection is another
feature of the IPM which improves reliability by up to 30%.
Pressure-stamped heat sinks round out the motor control
system's triple play. They use a procedure of cold
extruding solid aluminum pieces into precise shapes in a
single process.  They are less costly to manufacture and
deliver superior heat dissipation compared to conventional
heat sinks. 

    DSP Power and Performance + MCU Peripherals = Success

    "We determined early on that TI's C2000
controllers were the only product that met all of our
requirements. These devices provided the number-crunching
capability necessary for AFOC control along with enough
headroom to integrate advanced features like power factor
correction, motion profiling and spread spectrum PWM
generation," said Jeff Reichard, CEO, Tier Electronics
LLC.  "Having a motor control platform that is
reprogrammable in software allowed for easy tweaking or
adjustment of systems to increase efficiency or enable
system re-use with different motor types."

    TI's 16-bit TMS320F24x(TM) fixed-point DSP-based
controller provides up to 40 MIPS of performance and
features an integrated single-cycle multiplier, seven pulse
width modulation (PWM) variable frequency and dead-time
ports, five or more ultra-rapid 10-bit analog to digital
converters (ADCs), an impulse capture circuit with a 16-bit
timer and asynchronous serial communication.  Integrated
Flash memory allows re-programmability during the
development phase and in the field, which satisfies low
cost constraints and speeds time to market.  A low cost,
pin compatible ROM version designed specifically for
appliance applications is also available.  

    Pricing and Availability 

    For pricing and availability information for Tier's
product go to www.TierElectronics.com and click on
"RFQ" for the Mini UPC on the
"Products" page.  For more information on the
full line of C2000 digital signal controllers, see
http://www.ti.com/c2000 . 

    TI Enables Innovation with Broad Range of Controllers

    From ultra-low-power MSP430 and 32-bit general purpose
TMS470 ARM7(R) family-based MCUs to high performance
TMS320C2000 digital signal controllers, TI offers designers
the broadest range of embedded control solutions. Designers
can also accelerate their design to market by tapping into
TI's complete software and hardware tools, extensive third
party offerings and technical support. For more information
on the broad range of TI's controllers, see
http://www.ti.com/mcu .  

    About TI

    Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP
and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world
signal processing requirements. In addition to
Semiconductor, the company's businesses includes
Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is
headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing,
design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.

    Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located
on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com .

    About Tier Electronics

    Tier Electronics specializes in creating robust,
practical power electronics designs for OEMs worldwide by
supplying innovative and functional designs, assisting its
clients from concept to manufacturing, and integrating
innovative products from multiple industries.

    Tier Electronics' core competencies include: Extensive
power conversion experience, strong technical backgrounds
in motion control, power conversion, communications, DSPs,
interface electronics, and high level GUIs, and rapid
product development cycles.

    More information is located on the World Wide Web at
http://www.tierelectronics.com

    Trademarks

    TMS320C2000 and TMS320F24x are trademarks of TI. ARM7
is a trademark of ARM Ltd. All trademarks and registered
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

    For more information, please contact:

     Stephan Beek			
     Tel:   [phone]		
     Email: [e-mail]

     Lindsey James			
     Tel:   [phone]		
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Texas Instruments Incorporated