
FSCTxxA-UH5
5/11
DETAILED DESCRIPTION & APPLICATION INFORMATION
1. OUTPUT CHARACTERISTIC VERSUS TEMPERATURE
1.1 FAN speed control
As it's well known, BRUSHLESS DC motors present the advantage of a quasi-linear speed-voltage char-
acteristic.Hence,thefanspeedisvaryinglinearlyversusthevoltagewhichisappliedacrossitsterminals.
TheFSCTIntegratedCircuitprovidesatitsOUTterminal,avoltagewhichchangesversusthetemperature
sensed through its tab. This OUT voltage decreases as temperature increases, following two modes of op-
eration. By connecting this OUT terminal to the Base of a PNP transistor, as shown in figure 1 the FAN
voltage will increase with the sensed temperature.
The FAN voltage is given by the following equation:V
Typically, for a 12 V V
FAN+
and a 1 V V
EB
voltage, this gives:V
It can be noticed that the PNP operates as a linear amplifier. This avoids EMI and acoustic noise compared
to Pulse Width Modulation control circuits.
1.2 ON/OFF Mode Selection
The figure 6 gives the algorithm flowchart of the FSCT behavior. First, two modes of operation are distin-
guished by the ON pin signal.
V
V
V
FAN
FAN
EB
=
OUT
V
=
+
(1)
FAN V
OUT V
(
)
(
)
11
(2)
I
Mode ON: activated when ON pin is at High Level or Not Connected (thanks to an internal Pull-up
curren source "I
S
")
I
Mode OFF: activated when ON pin is at Low Level.
During Mode ON, the OUT voltage follows a three-parts characteristic, according to its junction tempera-
ture (T
j
):
I
T
j
< T
MS
: in this case, V
OUT
is limited to V
OMS
to avoid stalling the fan rotor
I
T
MS
< T
j
< T
OL
: V
OUT
is linearly regulated versus the junction temperature
I
T
j
> T
OL
: in this case, V
OUT
is clamped to its minimum value (V
OL
).
During Mode OFF, an Hysteresis control allows
the system to switch to mode ON only if the tem-
perature exceeds the T
ON
value. The Fan is turned
back off, if the system is cooled enough to lower
the temperature below T
OFF
.
The figure 7 sums up the FSCT Output character-
istic versus the temperature, for the two operation
modes.
1.3 Minimum speed (mode ON)
Mode ON allows users to ensure that the FAN will
be always ON, whatever the ambient temperature
is.
The OUT voltage is clamped to V
OMS
for low tem-
perature (below T
MS
= 37 °C typically).
The V
OMS
has been set to 5.5 V max , thus the
minimum voltage applied across the FAN is 5.5 V
(according to Equation 2). This voltage is above
stalling value of most fans and will then ensure that
the controlled FAN will always run, in mode ON,
avoiding spurious turn-off due to too low voltage at
low temperature. Annoying noises due to FAN
repetitive starts up are also suppressed.
yes
BEGIN
no
yes
V
OUT
= V
CC
FAN ON
V
OUT
= V
OL
IF T
j
> T
OL
no
FAN ON
V
OUT
= V
OL
IF T
j
> T
OL
no
yes
FAN OFF (V
OUT
= V
CC
)
ON is
LOW
T
j
> T
ON
FAN OFF
V
OUT
= V
OMS
– k
SL
.(T
j
– T
MS
)
OR
V
OUT
= V
OMS
– k
SL
.(T
j
– T
MS
)
OR
V
OUT
= V
OMS
IF T
j
< T
MS
OR
T
j
< T
OFF
Fig. 6:
FSCT behavior flow-chart.