Relay Products – Automotive
Application Notes
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and Relays
Introduction
Efficient energy management is one of the main goals in automotive
industry Regulating actuators by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is a
widespread means of improving efficiency. There has been an increasing penetration of PWM controlled applications like heater blowers,lamps, EPAS. Once a PWM controller is available in the car it could
be used for several applications.
Heat dissipation of monostable relay coils is one source of hightemperatures in relay boxes, distribution and switching modules.
That limits not only the relay performance, but the performance of
the whole unit, too. These heat sources could be removed by using
latching relays or at least be reduced by use of high resistive coils
and / or by applying PWM controlled driver circuits. This applicationnote summarizes key aspects, which have to be taken into accountwhen using PWM strategy for the relay coil driver.

This ripple around the effective current depends on the coil inductance, coil suppression, PWM frequency, voltage level and duty ratio.
It is always recommended to start with 100% PWM duty ratio until
the relay pullsthrough and settles. The necessary time depends on
excess voltage, relay type, etc…, but 500ms should be sufficient.
Otherwise it will take some time for the relay current to settle aroundthe effective current.
In order to warrant a good relay performance with PWM it has tobe made sure, that under all circumstances the coil current does
not undercut the level of holding current plus the excess current forshock and vibration. Otherwise the armature and the contacts might
open. Then the relay has to pull-in and pull-through again to settle.
Repeated opening and closing the armature might cause humming
noise. Unintended opening and closing the armature and contacts
under load might cause contact welding.

Inductance

Relay Status
The best way to regulate the relay coil power consumption would be
a DC current driver, since the main electrical parameters of a relay(pull-in, pull-through and holding currents) are to a certain extent
temperature independent. But relay coils are usually voltage driven.
Thus those characteristics translate into the temperature dependent
voltages for pull-in, pull-through and holding. The reason is the temperature depending resistance of the coil wire material, i.e. copper.
Once the relay has pulled through, it keeps its status (armaturekeeps to its position on the core) unless the coil current falls below
the holding current. For shock and vibration resistance there is anadditional excess current required, which depends on the relay type,further relay parameters and shock and vibration requirements.
PWM controlled drivers regulate the effective applied voltage bychanging the duty ratio of DC voltage normally at a given frequency.
Inductive systems like relay coils respond in presence of parallel
components to a negative going edge with a current decrease.

+UFET-Gate

4

Ucoil

Relay coil inductances are in general relatively high, which result incomparatively small current ripples. But these values are not constant and vary strongly within one relay family or one type. The relay
coil inductance depends among others on quite a few parameters,
which are not under focus in a standard relay manufacturing process. Furthermore it heavily depends on the coil current (saturation)and status of the relay (armature open or closed).

Coil Suppression
In DC coil drivers coil suppression is done for protecting the relay driver from high coil switch-off voltage peaks. There are several options
for this (see figure 2). For PWM coil drivers suppression is even morecrucial, since the coil switch off occurs at PWM frequencies, i.e. up
to several thousand times per second. Furthermore coil suppression
reduces the ripple coil current, and thus the potential for droppingout since the coil current takes longer to decrease. Therefore fromthis perspective the stronger the suppression the better, i.e. bestwith parallel diode (upper circle in figure 2). On the other hand thiscase is exactly the worst for relay switching capability. For single
drivers the best compromise is probably an anti parallel low voltage(3…9VDC) Z-diode (lower circle in figure 2). A Zener diode in parallelto the driver would cause a varying voltage clamp across the relay
coil during switch-off due to varying supply voltage.

UbattPWM

Icoil

21

Ch1 100mA Ω Ch2 10.0V
Ch4 5.00V

H 400μsFigure 1: Current response to PWM voltage step with parallel diode

GND
Figure 2: Relay coil low side driver with coil suppression options

09-2011, Rev. 0911
www.te.com© 2011 Tyco Electronics Ltd.

Datasheets and product specification according to IEC 61810-1 and to be used only
together with the ‘Definitions’ section.

Datasheets and product data is subject to theterms of the disclaimer and all chapters ofthe ‘Definitions’ section, available at
http://relays.te.com/definitions

Datasheets, product data, ‘Definitions’ section, application notes and all specifications
are subject to change.

1Relay Products – Automotive
Application Notes
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and Relays
Frequency:

Disturbing Noises

As could be seen in figure 3 the higher the frequency the lower is theripple current. Therefore the effective coil voltage could be chosen tobe lower with keeping all the other parameters constant. We recommend a PWM frequency of minimum 20kHz.
PWM 12VDC, 558Hz, 10 kHz, 20 kHz 67%, Tamb. 23°C, Tco il: 50°C

The application of PWM voltage across the relay coil causes magnetostriction of the iron within the relay magnetic system (core/frame/armature). The result is a slight audible noise if the relay was freely
suspended. However when the relay soldered or welded onto a rigid
lead frame that noise might be amplified. This depends on the leadframe (suspension, dimension, etc.) and the sound propagation anddamping within the car. Choosing 20kHz PWM avoids disturbing
noises for human beings but might cause problems to animals.

EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility)
Due to the steep voltage and current edges EMC problems arepossible. Therefore electromagnetic compatibility tests of the wholeunit are necessary.

Figure 3: Effect of different PWM frequencies on ripple coil current on
Power F relay with parallel diodeDuty Ratio
The effective coil voltage is the product of PWM duty ratio andsupply voltage. However the supply voltage varies due to changes insystem load (e.g. cranking) and alternator and battery status. Therefore the PWM duty ratio should be regulated according to the supplyvoltage. A tight regulation would be optimal for efficiency. But slightvariation on the supply side would cause a continuous regulation ofthe PWM duty ratio. Furthermore regulation response time would
need to be faster than 1ms to ensure, that the effective coil voltage
does not undercut the required voltage limit.
Figures 4 and 5 show a PWM concept for a requirement of 8VDC
effective coil voltage using a duty ratio regulation with 2VDC steps ofthe supply voltage.

100 %
80 %
60 %
40 %
20 %

Relay performancenot warranted

PWM Duty Ratio

120 %0%62VDC steps

Ucoil, eff 8VDC

8101214Supply voltage [VDC]

16182012108642

Relay performancenot warranted

Effective Coil Voltage [VDC]

Figure 4: PWM duty ratio as a function of supply voltage with 2VDC
step regulation

068101214161820

Supply voltage [VDC]

Figure 5: Effective coil voltage as function of supply voltage with
2VDC step regulation
209-2011, Rev. 0911
www.te.com© 2011 Tyco Electronics Ltd.

Datasheets and product specification according to IEC 61810-1 and to be used only
together with the ‘Definitions’ section.

Datasheets and product data is subject to theterms of the disclaimer and all chapters ofthe ‘Definitions’ section, available at
http://relays.te.com/definitions

Datasheets, product data, ‘Definitions’ section, application notes and all specifications
are subject to change.