Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet, Inc., announced today the launch of their latest development platform for designers implementing motor control systems, the Spartan-6 FPGA Motor Control Development Kit.

Designed in collaboration with Xilinx, Inc., the Spartan-6 FPGA Motor Control Development Kit enables engineers to prototype motor control designs for applications in industrial automation, consumer electronics, medical diagnostics and robotics. For more details, or to place an order, visit the Spartan-6 FPGA Motor Control Development Kit information page on AvnetExpress.com.

The Spartan-6 FPGA Motor Control Development Kit is an ideal platform for designers seeking to experiment with proven reference designs and develop custom control, integrating flexible peripheral functions like Ethernet, PowerLink and PCI Express (PCIe). Other features of the kit include:

Avnet's Xilinx Spartan-6 LX75T FPGA base board with PCIe edge connector, 10/100 Ethernet PHY, and dual 128MB DDR3 SDRAM banks;

Avnet Motor Control FPGA Mezzanine Adapter (FMC) module;

One Portescap Brushless DC (BLDC) motor with Hall Effect sensor;

One Portescap stepper can stack motor; and

One 12 V power supply and adapter cable.


The Avnet Motor Control FMC module features the Low Pin Count (LPC) form factor enabling attachment to any Avnet or Xilinx FMC-enabled platform. Each Avnet Motor Control FMC can drive one Stepper motor, two Brushed DC (BDC), two BLDC, or two Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM). Other features include:

DRV8312 integrated, three-phase, fractional-horsepower motor driver from Texas Instruments (TI) for high-current output;

Quad ADS1204 integrated delta-sigma modulator from TI for high-precision sensing;

Xilinx XADC header enabling low-cost 7 series FPGA integration;

Hall sensor/Encoder and General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) ports;

Drive stage voltage range from 12-24 V with external power option; and

A user prototype area for custom hardware modifications.

"Working closely with Xilinx engineers, Avnet's technical team created a kit that is both versatile and easy to use for designers looking to develop and verify motor control algorithms," said Jim Beneke, vice president of global technical marketing, Avnet Electronics Marketing. "At its core, this kit utilized the Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA, which enables a motor control performance advantage over standard microcontroller or DSP implementations, while also offering a unique integration capability that only an FPGA-based solution can offer."

"By building their motor control systems using Spartan-6 FPGAs, developers can lower their total cost of ownership by conserving power through tighter control of speed, torque and acceleration, while improved efficiency allows for smaller, less expensive motors," said Harry Raftopoulos, director of Xilinx\'s Industrial Business Segment. "The Spartan-6 FPGA Motor Control Development Kit gives these developers a comprehensive and scalable development platform for building these applications easily."

"Selecting the right motor driver is critical to the design of any high-performance, motorized application," said Marc Royer, marketing manager for TI's Precision Data Converter and Motor Drive businesses. "The DRV8312 motor driver, combined with the ADS1204 delta sigma modulator, enable Avnet to provide high-performance, high-precision and power-efficient motor control that is also robust, reliable and fully protected."

"Portescap's compact, high-precision, high power BLDC and stepper motors are the perfect complement to Avnet's Motor Control FMC module," said William Anderson, director of international sales at Portescap. "The combination of Portescap and Avnet provide a complete motor control solution for our combined customers."

For more information, or to order the Avnet Spartan®-6 FMC Development Kit, visit www.em.avnet.com/spartan6motor.