They can be found in automotive, industrial, and consumer applications in products ranging from electric vehicles to data center servers and cordless power tools.
The accelerating pace of electrification and advanced driver assistance systems in the automotive sector is driving demand for high-performance motor controllers that help reduce noise, increase efficiency, and integrate features that allow designers to reduce the number of components and lower overall system costs. Automakers need products that can withstand the harsh conditions inside modern vehicles while also meeting high safety standards, helping to improve battery life between charge cycles, and reducing weight. Allegro motor controllers can be found in critical applications such as cooling fans, starter generators, transmissions, and advanced 48-volt battery systems.
Over the past decade, there has been a push toward higher battery performance requirements in the industrial sector as well, with a focus on increasing runtime between charges in applications such as order picking robots in fulfillment warehouses. This shift is also occurring in consumer products, such as cordless power tools, which are rapidly replacing older corded models. Allegro motor controllers meet or exceed customer needs in both industrial and consumer applications by integrating features, reducing package size, and improving ease of use to help manufacturers lower costs, simplify bills of materials (BOMs), and enable smaller form factors.
The company attributes much of its recent momentum to a development process that emphasizes partnerships and co-development with customers, with some relationships spanning more than two decades. By working closely with customers, the Allegro team is often able to develop single-chip solutions for different use cases, enabling many customers to move to a single-platform approach across multiple product lines. This can represent significant cost savings for companies that sell products with varying voltage requirements, such as power tools and garden equipment.
“We add value by helping our customers improve time to market and reduce development cycles; we win when they win, and that motivates us to keep developing new motor controller products,” says Steve Lutz, Director of the Motors (Automotive) Business Line at Allegro. “We continue to innovate with new products that reduce energy consumption, improve battery life, and minimize carbon footprint.”
The Allegro team has increased motor controller R&D investments in recent years, leading to new advancements in its deep embedded motion control IP portfolio. Introduced in 2019, the company’s QuietMotion™ motor controllers include the market’s first field-oriented (FOC) brushless DC electric motor controllers that require no customer code. These devices are designed to provide reliable, efficient, low-noise performance, while reducing design cycle times through simple parameter adjustments, which users can access via intuitive graphical user interfaces.
“Many of our customers—especially those in growing emerging markets—lack dedicated software development resources for motor controllers and often rely on freelance programmers and contractors,” says Andy Wang, director of the (industrial) motor product line at Allegro. “We’re helping those customers significantly reduce development overhead by embedding the code directly into the IC, helping them get to market faster.”.
Allegro's products are designed to create positive environmental and social impacts, helping customers address global challenges related to carbon emissions, energy efficiency, and clean and renewable energy. The company takes a sustainability-focused approach to semiconductor design and manufacturing, integrating sustainable practices throughout its supply chain and operations. In addition to hybrid and electric vehicles, Allegro motor controllers can be found in applications aimed at reducing environmental impact, such as solar arrays, data center fans, and high-efficiency heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
To help customers better address their evolving needs, Allegro plans to launch several new motor controllers over the next year. These upcoming devices will feature new and expanded capabilities that will help further improve battery life and enable a single-platform approach, all while reducing overall system costs.
