Choosing a MOSFET driver on mouser.com

[Rusttree]

Choosing a MOSFET driver for H-bridge on mouser.com

I'm attempting to put together a speed controller for a hobby RC brushless DC motor. The power source will be 12V and max current should be less than 20A. I'll probably use a PWM frequency of 10kHz from a PIC uC.

With my limited understanding so far, I've chosen this MOSFET to form the h-bridge. So now I'm trying to pick out a MOSFET driver that is up for the task. I think I understand the need for high-side and low-side drivers. Namely, the high-side driver needs to provide 10V at the gate above the 12V source, while the low-side only needs to provide 10V at the gate.

The problem is, I only found low-side drivers on mouser.com. I filtered for through-hole components, as I wanted to build this on a breadboard. There were several DIP packages for low-side MOSFET drivers, but no high-side. I think the one device that was a combined high and low side driver was out of stock.

Am I going about this wrong? I would have figured the market would have tons of DIP package drivers to drive h-bridges. Any recommendations for an alternative approach would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Reloadron]

You may want to give this a read.

Ron

 

[ronv]

Just checking... You want the motor to go in both directions?

 

[Rusttree]

Ron,
Thanks for the link. It reinforced many concepts that I've been reading elsewhere.

ronv,
No, just one direction is adequate for my design.

Instead of filtering the search for "MOSFET driver", I searched for H-bridge drivers. I came up with this half-bridge driver that has a DIP package:
https://www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/13863.pdf

It has a lower maximum current source (less than 1 amp), but applying the charge time calculation, I think it's still fast enough. I figure I can get three of these chips to drive my 3-phase MOSFET H-bridge. Any gotchas I should be aware of before I commit to the purchase?

Thanks!

 

[carbonzit]

Sorry, can't help you with your specific request. But in general I like Digi-Key's parametric search better than any others I've found.

For instance, here is the search page for MOSFET drivers using an external switch (I think that's what you're looking for, no?). You might give it a try.

You reach their parametric search pages by typing in a keyword in the search box anywhere on their site.

 

[ronv]

Is it like a 3 phase brushless motor? In which case look at power management / motor drivers. It's not clear you need an H-bridge. Can you show us a schematic of your motor?

 

[Rusttree]

Yes, it is a 3-phase brushless. The motor is an off-the-shelf RC airplane motor, so I don't have a schematic for it, other than it's got 3 wires coming out of it. I've probed the wires while plugged into a commercial ESC and saw exactly the PWM signal I expected for a 3-phase.

Now, though, I'm a little confused. You say I might not need an H-bridge? Isn't an H-bridge the only way to drive a motor like this?