REV. 0
ADMCF341
–15–
will remain OFF (0% duty cycle). Additionally, the AL signal
will be turned ON for the entire half period (100% duty cycle).
Output Control Unit: PWMSEG Register
The operation of the output control unit is managed by the 9-bit
read/write PWMSEG register. This register sets two distinct
features of the output control unit that are directly useful in the
control of ECM or BDCM.
The PWMSEG register contains three crossover bits, one for
each pair of PWM outputs. Setting bit 8 of the PWMSEG regis-
ter enables the crossover mode for the AH/AL pair of PWM
signals; setting bit 7 enables crossover on the BH/BL pair of
PWM signals; and setting bit 6 enables crossover on the CH/CL
pair of PWM signals. If crossover mode is enabled for any pair
of PWM signals, the high side PWM signal from the timing unit
(for example, AH) is diverted to the associated low side output
of the output control unit so that the signal will ultimately
appear at the AL pin. Of course, the corresponding low side
output of the timing unit is also diverted to the complementary
high side output of the output control unit so that the signal
appears at pin AH. Following a reset, the three crossover bits
are cleared so that the crossover mode is disabled on all three
pairs of PWM signals.
The PWMSEG register also contains six bits (bits 0 to 5) that
can be used to individually enable or disable each of the six
PWM outputs. If the associated bit of the PWMSEG register is
set, the corresponding PWM output is disabled regardless of the
value of the corresponding duty cycle register. This PWM out-
put signal will remain in the OFF state as long as the
corresponding enable/disable bit of the PWMSEG register is
set. The PWM output enable function gates the crossover func-
tion. After a reset, all six enable bits of the PWMSEG register
are cleared, thereby enabling all PWM outputs by default.
In a manner identical to the duty cycle registers, the PWMSEG
is latched on the rising edge of the PWMSYNC signal so that
changes to this register only become effective at the start of each
PWM cycle in single update mode. In double update mode, the
PWMSEG register can also be updated at the midpoint of the
PWM cycle.
In the control of an ECM, only two inverter legs are switched at
any time, and often the high side device in one leg must be
switched ON at the same time as the low side driver in a second
leg. Therefore, by programming identical duty cycles for two
PWM channels (for example, let PWMCHA = PWMCHB) and
setting bit 7 of the PWMSEG register to cross over the BH/BL
pair of PWM signals, it is possible to turn ON the high side
switch of phase A and the low side switch of phase B at the
same time. In the control of an ECM, one inverter leg (phase C
in this example) is disabled for a number of PWM cycles. This
disable may be implemented by disabling both the CH and CL
PWM outputs by setting bits 0 and 1 of the PWMSEG register.
This is illustrated in Figure 7, where it can be seen that both the
AH and BL signals are identical, because PWMCHA = PWM
CHB, and the crossover bit for phase B is set. In addition, the
other four signals (AL, BH, CH, and CL) have been disabled by
setting the appropriate enable/disable bits of the PWMSEG
register. For the situation illustrated in Figure 9, the appropriate
value for the PWMSEG register is 0x00A7. In ECM operation,
because each inverter leg is disabled for a certain period of time,
the PWMSEG register is changed based upon the position of
the rotor shaft (motor commutation).
Effective PWM Resolution
In single update mode, the same values of PWMCHA,
PWMCHB, and PWMCHC are used to define the on-times in
both half cycles of the PWM period. As a result, the effective
resolution of the PWM generation process is 2 t
CK
(or 100 ns
for a 20 MHz CLKOUT), since incrementing one of the duty
cycle registers by one changes the resultant on-time of the asso-
ciated PWM signals by t
CK
in each half period (or 2 t
CK
for the
full period).
In double update mode, improved resolution is possible since
different values of the duty cycle registers are used to define the
on-times in both the first and second halves of the PWM period.
As a result, it is possible to adjust the on-time over the whole
period in increments of t
CK
. This corresponds to an effective
PWM resolution of t
CK
in double update mode (or 50 ns for a
20 MHz CLKOUT).
Table IV. Achievable PWM Resolution in Single and Double
Update Modes
Resolution Single Update Mode Double Update Mode
(Bit) (kHz) PWM Frequency (kHz) PWM Frequency
839.1 78.4
919.5 39.1
10 9.8 19.5
11 4.9 9.8
12 2.4 4.9
Minimum Pulsewidth: PWMPD Register
In many power converter switching applications, it is desirable
to eliminate PWM switching pulses shorter than a certain width.
It takes a finite time to both turn on and turn off modern power
semiconductor devices. Therefore, if the width of any of the
PWM pulses is shorter than some minimum value, it may be
desirable to completely eliminate the PWM switching for that
particular cycle.
The allowable minimum on-time for any of the six PWM out-
puts for half a PWM period that can be produced by the PWM
controller may be programmed using the PWMPD register. The
minimum on-time is programmed in increments of t
CK
so that
the minimum on-time produced for any half PWM period,
T
MIN
, is related to the value in the PWMPD register by:
TPWMPD t
MIN CK
=¥
A PWMPD value of 0x002 defines a permissible minimum
on-time of 100 ns for a 20 MHz CLKOUT.
In each half cycle of the PWM, the timing unit checks the on-
time of each of the six PWM signals. If any of the times is found
to be less than the value specified by the PWMPD register, the
corresponding PWM signal is turned OFF for the entire half
period, and its complementary signal is turned completely ON.
Consider the example where PWMTM = 200, PWMCHA = 5,
PWMDT = 3, and PWMPD = 10 with a CLKOUT of 20 MHz,
while operating in single update mode. For this case, the
PWM switching frequency is 50 kHz and the dead time is
300 ns. The minimum permissible on-time of any PWM signal
over one-half of any period is 500 ns. Clearly, for this example,
the dead-time adjusted on-time of the AH signal for one-half a
PWM period is (5–3) ¥ 50 ns = 100 ns. Because this is less than
the minimum permissible value, output AH of the timing unit