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Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or multi-copters come in all shapes and sizes. One of the more common varieties is the quad-copter consisting of a flight controller module and four separate electronic speed controllers (ESCs) to manage the propellers. These tend to use battery-powered BLDC motors each driven by six MOSFETs, with the batteries recharged using a USB connector.

Block diagram

Highlighted components are Nexperia focus products

Design considerations

  • Motors have to support the full weight of the copter continuously while turning at high speed
  • ESCs need to be properly sized to ensure they can provide the maximum current that is necessary
  • Six MOSFETs per motor for efficient motor driving 

Nexperia in action

You can see our 30 V, 70 A N-channel MOSFETs powering a quadcopter design with NXP's Kinetis Quadcopter Drone Reference Design

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