A new family of magnet-free inductive position sensor (IPS) integrated circuits (ICs) was unveiled by Renesas Electronics. These ICs can be fully customized for a variety of coil designs that are compatible with a broad range of industrial applications, including robotics, healthcare, smart buildings, home appliances, and motor commutation.
The new RAA2P3226, RAA2P3200, and RAA2P4200 sensor ICs are designed for high resolution, accuracy, and reliable performance.
They provide an affordable substitute for conventional magnetic and optical encoders, which can be heavy, costly, and require regular maintenance. Additionally, Renesas introduced a web-based design tool that enables customers to quickly and simply develop unique sensing elements to satisfy their unique system needs.
Renesas IPS products, which use non-contact coil sensor technology, detect absolute rotatary, linear, or arc positions using dual-coil or single-coil configurations with a basic metallic target.
Even in conditions with high temperatures (-40 to 125°C), particulate matter, moisture, mechanical vibration, and electromagnetic interference, these sensor integrated circuits are made to function steadily.
In addition, unlike sensors based on magnetic or optical encoders, they don’t need to be maintained and are resistant to stray magnetic fields. For applications where reliability and long-term performance are crucial, such as motor drives, actuators, valves, service robots, and infrastructure, their longevity and minimal maintenance make them a reliable and affordable sensing option.
With an accuracy of greater than 0.1 percent of the full-scale electrical range, all three devices provide excellent target position detection precision.
Two of the products, the RAA2P3226 and RAA2P3200, have propagation delays of less than 100 ns and operate at 600K RPM (electrical), which is essential for high-speed motor applications.
The sophisticated RAA2P3226 offers the high-precision performance needed for robotic applications by supporting dual-coil sensing with up to 19-bit resolution and 0.01° absolute accuracy.
The RAA2P3200 is designed for high-speed motor commutation, while the RAA2P4200 is intended for low-speed applications such power tools and medical devices. Automatic linearization and calibration are features of all three devices that make integration easier and boost system-level performance.
Later this year, Renesas will also launch automotive-grade IPS, RAA2P452x and RAA2P4500, in addition to these three products. When used with Renesas MCUs, the dual-channel RAA2P452x enables users to attain ASIL D safety compliance.
Without compromising quality, this automotive-grade solution provides an affordable alternative for low-speed body control and chassis systems.
A PCB, an IC with passive parts, and a metal target fixed to the moving part are usually integrated when designing using inductive position sensors.
The external sensing element, such as the transmitter and receiver coils, is the most complicated component. It needs to be carefully designed to achieve accuracy and tailored to the mechanical and environmental requirements of the system.
This problem is addressed by Renesas’ web-based Inductive Position Sensor Coil Optimizer tool, which drastically lowers the learning curve for developers by automating coil layout, simulation, and tuning.
By improving the coil architecture, engineers can also use this technology to get precise performance estimations and get around production limitations.
Key Features of the RAA2P3226, RAA2P3200 and RAA2P4200
RAA2P3226
- Dual-coil IPS for full inductive robotic joints, logistic and industrial robots/Cobots
- Output interfaces: UART, ABI, Step-Dir, I²C
- Up to 19-bit resolution and 0.01° absolute accuracy (integrated Vernier)
- Automatic Gain Control (AGC) to compensate for air-gap variations
- 16-point linearization feature to improve the accuracy
- True-power-on position information at the start-up
- Rotary On-axis and off-axis, arc and linear implementations possible
- Industrial-grade temperature range: -40°C to 125°C
- Supply voltage: 3.0V to 5.5V
RAA2P3200
- High-speed, low-latency IPS for motor commutation, E-bikes and industrial robots/Cobots
- Output interfaces: SPI, UART, ABI, UVW or Step-Dir
- Automatic Gain Control (AGC) to compensate for air-gap variations
- 16-point linearization feature to improve the accuracy
- Rotary On-axis and off-axis, arc and linear implementations possible
- Industrial-grade temperature range: -40°C to 125°C
- Supply voltage: 3.0V to 5.5V
- Overvoltage, reverse polarity, and short-circuit protection
RAA2P4200
- Single-coil design for low-speed service robots, power tools and medical applications
- Output interfaces: Analog, PWM, I²C
- Automatic Gain Control (AGC) to compensate for air-gap variations
- 16-point linearization feature to improve the accuracy
- Rotary on-axis and off-axis, arc and linear implementations possible
- Industrial-grade temperature range: -40°C to 125°C
- Supply voltage: 3.0V to 5.5V
- Overvoltage, reverse polarity, and short-circuit protection
- Replacing the ZMID4200 device
Leadership Comments
“Our new web-based coil design tool is a game changer for inductive position sensing,” said Leopold Beer, Vice President of the Sensors Division at Renesas. “In the past, developers had to rely on chip suppliers for technical expertise when working with inductive position sensors. We completely removed this hurdle. This intuitive tool lets developers fully customize the sensing element and automatically fine-tunes it to achieve maximum accuracy and robustness at the system level. This dramatically lowers the barrier of entry and enables more customers, regardless of their expertise level, to confidently integrate inductive position sensing into their designs.”
Availability
The RAA2P3226, RAA2P3200 and RAA2P4200 are available in volume production, along with evaluation kits. The automotive-grade RAA2P452x and RAA2P4500 will be in production in Q4/2025. The Inductive Position Sensor Coil Optimizer is available now and supports all Renesas IPS products.
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