Renesas Electronics and MinebeaMitsumi Collaborate on Stepper Motor Solutions for Robotics, OA, and Medical/Nursing Equipment
Tokyo, Japan, December 11, 2019 – Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), the world’s leading supplier of semiconductor solutions, and MinebeaMitsumi, TSE: 6479) today announced the joint development of resolver (angle sensor) based stepper motors and motor control solutions optimized for robotics, office automation (OA) equipment, and medical/nursing equipment. Renesas Electronics and MinebeaMitsumi have jointly developed resolver sensor-based stepper motors and motor control solutions that meet the needs for higher-precision control of motors, miniaturization, and greater resistance to environmental influences.
MinebeaMitsumi has a solid market track record in automotive resolver sensors and has developed a new resolver for stepper motors for the first time in consumer and industrial equipment applications such as robotics, office automation equipment, and medical/nursing equipment. As the global 32-bit microcontroller (MCU) market leader (Note 2), Renesas has developed a new resolver-to-digital converter (RDC) that supports MinebeaMitsumi’s new stepping motors, and Bit RX MCU to realize the driver software of RDC control. Renesas also brings a resolver-based stepper motor control kit, which provides development tools including MinebeaMitsumi stepper motors with resolvers and evaluation boards with RDC, enabling users to quickly start applications development.
MinebeaMitsumi technical officer Katsumi Suzuki said, “We are very excited to partner with Renesas to provide superior control technology and develop best-in-class products. We hope that the advancement of resolver stepper motors in product differentiation will drive us forward. open up new markets.”
“We are working with MinebeaMitsumi to bring stepper motors to a wider range of applications. Together The solution includes everything needed for resolver stepper motor development, such as motors, RDCs, microcontrollers, software and tools, enabling users to speed up motor development and shorten time to market.”
Characteristics of a new solution based on resolver stepper motor
Stepper motors with resolvers can perform high-precision motor control even in harsh environments with high temperatures, dust, or vibration. It also has higher-order features, such as the ability to drive heavy loads without losing synchronization. Renesas Electronics and MinebeaMitsumi have developed new resolver stepper motors and resolver motor control solutions, which greatly expand the application range of stepper motors at a high cost performance. For example, in the development of robots or automated guided vehicles (AGVs), customers can achieve high-precision motion even in harsh environments such as warehouses or outdoors, while reducing costs by using smaller motors and further driving the miniaturization of industrial equipment.
Key features of MinebeaMitsumi resolver stepper motors:
l High torque characteristics: Since no out-of-step control is required, the torque is 2 to 3 times that of existing products
l Control characteristics: able to operate at broadband and ultra-low speed
l Low power consumption: current optimization through servo control that responds to the actual load
l High Accuracy: High positional accuracy achieved through a high resolution of 200,000 P/R
l Resistant to harsh environments: simple structure, heat resistance, dust resistance, vibration resistance
l Miniaturization: The high torque of the motor makes it possible to miniaturize the application products
Key features of Renesas RDC and RDC Control Driver Software:
l Detection method: VR type voltage detection, VR type current detection
lRX MCU support: Renesas provides RDC driver software for RX24T (and plans to support other MCUs)
l Anti-electromagnetic noise: Due to the inclusion of a filter, position detection can be performed at a signal-to-noise ratio of 1/2 (noise is twice that of the signal)
Renesas Resolver-Based Stepper Motor Control Kit
l Included accessories: MinebeaMitsumi 42mm square resolver stepper motor, control board, CPU board (including RDC and RX24T)
l Development support tool: Renesas Motor Workbench (including real-time waveform Display function)
l Software included: RDC control driver software, stepper motor control software
Availability
MinebeaMitsumi’s new resolver-based stepping motor samples are scheduled to ship in January 2020, and mass production will start in April 2020. Renesas’ resolver-based stepper motor control kit will be available in January 2020.
MinebeaMitsumi will demonstrate the jointly developed product at the International Robot Exhibition 2019 (iREX2019) booth W4-25 (Tokyo Big Sight, West Hall 4th floor) from December 18 to 21, 2019 in Tokyo.
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