Imagine a motor control design that tackles complex trig functions in just a few cycles, slashing software overhead. That is what NXP's MCX A34 mixed-signal microcontrollers are designed to deliver.
Built on an Arm® Cortex®-M33 core running up to 180 MHz with a generous helping of on-chip memory, the MCX A34 family combines high-performance math acceleration, rich analog peripherals and advanced motor control subsystems to unlock precise, efficient motor drive solutions. Designed for simplicity, it shrinks bill of materials (BOM) costs, accelerates control loops, and streamlines development.
Designers of advanced motor controllers often juggle multiple chips to achieve high-speed control loops, accurate sensing and robust communication. Here's where the MCX A34 family comes in—it tackles those pain points head-on.
Its Math Acceleration Unit (MAU) performs Sin/Cos/Tan/Sqrt and reciprocal functions up to 17 times faster than Common Microcontroller Software Interface Standard-Digital Signal Processing (CMSIS-DSP), so you can shorten field-oriented control (FOC) loops without the burden of CPU cycles. A rich set of 16-bit Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), Operational Amplifiers (OpAmps) and a 12bit Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) replaces external analog front ends, lowering cost and noise. And with integrated SmartDMA, high-speed timers and industrial communications, the MCX A34 is a one-chip solution for high-efficiency motor drive designs.
Ready to explore the power of the MCX A34 family? Get hands-on with the FRDM-MCXA346 development board and start building today.
The MCX A34 is designed for real-world Industrial and IoT machines. In the Power and Energy sector, it targets HVAC control, smart circuit breakers and solar inverters, where precise current sensing and fast control loops translate into quieter compressors and higher efficiency. Factory Automation gear like water pumps, AC motor drives and process control equipment benefit from the integrated ADCs, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and quadrature decoders, enabling multi-motor synchronization without external Digital Signal Processors (DSPs).
In Home and Building applications—appliance motors, induction cookers, building controls and fans—the combination of OpAmps, DAC and tamper-resistant security simplifies their design. Even general embedded devices like medical pumps, power tools and drones can leverage the MCX A34's high-resolution analog and math acceleration to deliver smoother performance and longer battery life.
And when it comes to building these applications, the MCX A34 is fully backed by the MCUXpresso Developer Experience, giving engineers the tools and flexibility needed to start fast and scale with confidence.
See what’s inside. Take a look at the MCX A34 family’s components:
Key features of the MCX A34 include:
What sets the MCX A34 apart is its holistic approach to motor drive integration. Most microcontroller units (MCUs) force tradeoffs between analog fidelity, computation and cost, but MCX A34 combines them.
The MAU slashes cycle counts for trig functions, while integrated 3.2 Msps ADCs and OpAmps deliver cleaner, synchronized sensing, all inside a single package. SmartDMA and plentiful serial ports let you stream data without bogging down the core. Add in robust security, comprehensive motor control timers and a scalable memory footprint, and you have a device purpose-built for high efficiency, dual-motor or Power Factor Correction (PFC) applications.
Designed to streamline embedded development, MCUXpresso supports flexible workflows and scales with your project. Developmers can build, test and deploy motor control applications faster using the MCUXpresso suite of software and tools.
The MCUXpresso Software Development Kit (SDK) for MCX A34 includes optimized peripheral drivers, middleware, utilities and example projects. It supports a range of integrated development environments (IDEs), including:
When you are ready to start building, explore the Application Code Hub (ACH) to access over 200 code snippets and demos designed to accelerate your development—no guesswork required.
Jumpstart your next motor control project with the FRDM-MCXA346 development board—a cost-effective, easy-to-use platform that gives you full access to the MCX A34's powerful peripherals and subsystems.
Key features of the platform include:
To recap, the MCX A34 family delivers a unique combination of:
Whether you’re building smarter HVAC, next-gen appliances or factory automation systems, MCX A34 helps you simplify development while maximizing performance.
Daniel Hou is a technical marketer on the Industrial Edge Processing Mass Market Team at NXP Semiconductors where he supports emerging microcontroller and microprocessor use cases for the industrial market segment. He has held previous roles in applications engineering and marketing in the semiconductor industry and has a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
