Designing magnetic solenoid driver circuits

Read about the design of current-controlled, intelligent magnetic solenoid driver

circuits.
By Uwe Malzahn
Application Engineering Manager
iC-Haus

Several hurdles must be overcome to drive magnetic solenoids in valves, relays and other actuators with utmost
efficiency and minimum power.
During energising, the current required to bridge the air gap in the magnetic circuit is usually much higher than
what is later needed to hold the device when the magnetic circuit is closed.
Without a suitable driver circuit, magnetic solenoids are often simply powered by the energising current, with an
unnecessarily high level of power dissipation as the result.
Furthermore, where standard, unregulated driver circuits are used the solenoid must be suitable for the relevant
supply voltage, which in turn defines the solenoid current through the solenoid’s internal resistor. Different supply
voltages thus require solenoids specifically adapted to them.
Possible approaches towards a more flexible, power-saving driver unit range from simple single-transistor circuits
with currents reduced by RC circuits to integrated circuits with pulse width modulation (PWM).
Standard integrated solutions only provide a 'controlled’ PWM (figure 1). This makes it relatively easy to reduce
the hold current versus the energising current and the overall current draw by lowering the duty cycle. However,
the resulting current still depends on the supply voltage. This means that both the solenoid and PWM control
(frequency, duty cycle) have to be adjusted to suit the applied supply voltage. In some integrated systems, however,
attempts are being made to ‘track’ the PWM control depending on the supply voltage.

Figure 1: Driving a solenoid with simple PWM.

Using a current-controlled PWM circuit with current reduction takes the two main aspects of solenoid driving into
consistent account. As with controlled PWM the inductivity behaviour is exploited to store the current. This is
measured and used as a controlled variable. In principle circuits like this are similar to those in switching
converters. The switch (T1) is cyclically activated by an internal oscillator with a fixed frequency and powers the
solenoid (L1) up to the set cut-off current. When this cut-off current is reached, T1 is again switched off. The
energized solenoid freewheels through the diode (D1), i.e. the solenoid current is slowly reduced until the next
activation. On average the solenoid is operated at a current which is just below the set cut-off current (figure 2).

EE Times-Asia | eetasia.com Copyright © 2013 eMedia Asia Ltd. Page 1 of 3

 Figure 2: Current-controlled PWM solenoid drive.

The defining advantage of this configuration is that the current is regulated independent of the supply voltage. Only
the hold and energising currents have to be set to match the solenoid. Here, the duty cycle of the PWM is
automatically regulated depending on solenoid parameters, such as inductivity and internal resistance, and the
supply voltage.
In this manner, with this driver circuit the same 6 V solenoid can be used within a wide voltage range (10 to 36 V),
for example, as the solenoid current no longer depends on the supply voltage.

Figure 3: Integrated system for a current-controlled, intelligent magnetic solenoid driver circuit.

EE Times-Asia | eetasia.com Copyright © 2013 eMedia Asia Ltd. Page 2 of 3

Figure 3 shows the practical design of a controlled PWM driver circuit as described above in the form of integrated
circuit iC-GE. The energising current is set by RACT and reduced to the hold current configured with RHOLD after
typically 50 ms. By reducing this to two-thirds of the energising current, for instance, the power dissipation is cut by
approximately 50%.
The Zener diode in the PWM output stage is activated when the driver is switched off and enables faster
demagnetisation of the solenoid due to the higher freewheeling voltage.
The PWM output stage uses an internal 80kHz oscillator as a time base, and thus is beyond audible range.
External resistors RACT and RHOLD permit the respective energising and hold currents to be set within a range of
100 mA to 1 A. Alternatively, iC-GE100 is available for a current range of between 10 and 100 mA. This enables
solenoids within 10 mH to 10 H to be driven in many different applications.
Besides current reduction and regulation this device also includes diagnostic functions which can signal solenoid
defects, fractured wires, and over-temperature in the iC to the LED output (blinking frequency typically 2.4Hz).
Another advantage over the regulated driver circuits on the market to date is the separate configuration of the
energising and hold currents, plus the ability to extend the actuation time—the time needed for the solenoid
current to be regulated down to the preset hold current—using a simple capacitor.
Other interesting features include the following:
• Flexible error display (DIAG), either with an LED driver or as a logic output
• Option of synchronising the driver with the load current of the relay to be driven, for instance (SYNC), so
that this can be switched in zero load current to preserve contacts
To sum up, it can be said that utilising special ICs in applications with electromechnical relays, valves and magnets
can reduce power consumption independent of the supply voltage. At the same time, the system becomes more
reliable, and errors can be quickly detected.

About the author

Uwe Malzahn, Dipl.-Ing., studied electrical engineering at the University of Darmstadt, Germany. He is
an application engineering manager responsible for actuator and laser driver iCs at iC-Haus in
Germany.

EE Times-Asia | eetasia.com Copyright © 2013 eMedia Asia Ltd. Page 3 of 3