Piezo driver

Our approach

Kinetic Ceramics install Piezo Actuators systems in many mission-critical applications where reliability is the ultimate priority and end-users expect years of continuous operation without failures. Other priorities include higher performance and compact form-factor.

From inception of the project, we had to push the boundaries of Power electronics to achieve target performance. Project started with intense R&D and validating critical assumptions in Power Electronics, EMI reduction.

Modular system architecture in PD-600 was chosen to enable parallel workstream on Power Supply, Inverter module, Control Circuits. Modules can also be used in multiple products and easily replaced for service.

We used Agile iterative approach and designed production-ready device in 3 iterations of design and prototyping.

Product design

Industrial Electronics applications often use sheet metal enclosures because of high level of protection and low fixed startup expenses. Sheet metal is processed with laser cutting, CNC machine bending, and spot welding.

Metal enclosure was best choice for PD-600 to withstand mechanical impact, vibration, and shield EMI created by high-voltage power electronics circuits switching over a thousand volts, thousands of time per second.

Mechanical engineers at AJProTech created mechanical design that fit into standard 19” rack. Enclosures can be cost-effectively produced with quantities from few samples to several thousand units.

Power Electronics

Piezo actuators provide best performance and accuracy when driven by high frequency 1200V signal. Such systems typically use high voltage transformers that are bulky and limit performance. PD-600 was designed without bulky high voltage output transformers.

POWER SUPPLY: Low voltage 24VDC power input is boosted to generate 1500 Volts rail.

FULL BRIDGE INVERTER uses generates sin wave output with amplitude of 1200 volts using SiC MOSFETs. Silicon-Carbide components allow high-quality output wave due to low switching losses at high frequency.

POWER ELECTRONICS design went through extensive R&D to achieve reliable operation and reduce EMI created by high-voltage switching

Control module

At AJProTech, we have a proven process designing complex electronics hardware. Starting with system architecture and components selection, we reliably produce future-proof electrical designs.

Heart of the system is 32bit Cortex-M4 / Cortex-M0 MCU from NXP. Controller generates PWM commands for Power Amplifier, collects feedback from sensors (current, voltage, temperature, pressure), and provide essential safety functions.

Controller supports variety interfaces including 100MBit Ethernet, USB2.0, MODBUS / RS-485 interface, and Bluetooth.

Hardware design included PCB layout with multiple analog and digital circuits. 6 layer PCB with dedicated ground planes ensures no signal interference.

Web server

Firmware and Software development

PD-600 is built with robust automotive / industrial grade ARM 32bit microcontroller that runs both low-level software to control essential functionality (embedded firmware) and high-level software (User Interface).

We designed Embedded firmware for 32bit ARM Microcontroller with focus on reliability and efficiency. Bare-metal firmware is written in C++ without using RTOS to provide fast response time. Microcontroller receives data from temperature, voltage, current sensors; generates control PWM commands to actuator elements; and monitors abnormal conditions to execute immediate shutdown, if needed.

User interface is implemented as embedded HTML web server running directly on the microcontroller. Operator may use external Linux, Windows, and Mac devices to access controller. Device is also accessible via MODBUS and USB interface. Device firmware may be updated through web-interace by uploading new binary file

Our software engineers combined low-level and User Interface on a single microcontroller, implemented firmware update routines, and completed extensive tests and software validation