APPLICATION NOTE

STEPPER MOTOR DRIVING

By H. SAX
Dedicated integrated circuits have dramatically simplified stepper motor driving. To apply these ICs desi-
gners need little specific knowledge of motor driving techniques, but an under-standing of the basics will help
in finding the best solution. This note explains the basics of stepper motor driving and describes the drive
techniques used today.
From a circuit designer’s point of view stepper mo- Figure 2 : ICs for Unipolar and Bipolar Driving.
tors can be divided into two basic types : unipolar
and bipolar.
UNIPOLAR
A stepper motor moves one step when the direction
of current flow in the field coil(s) changes, reversing
the magnetic field of the stator poles. The difference
between unipolar and bipolar motors lies in the may
that this reversal is achieved (figure 1) :
Figure 1a : BIPOLAR - with One Field Coil and
Two Chargeover Switches That are
Switched in the Opposite Direction.
Figure 1b : UNIPOLAR - with Two Separate Field
Coils and are Chargeover Switch.

a)

BIPOLAR

b)

AN235/0788 1/17
APPLICATION NOTE

The advantage of the bipolar circuit is that there is CONSTANT CURRENT DRIVING
only one winding, with a good bulk factor (low win- In order to keep the motor’s power loss within a rea-
ding resistance). The main disapuantages are the sonable limit, the current in the windings must be
two changeover switches because in this case more controlled.
semiconductors are needed.
A simple and popular solution is to give only as much
The unipolar circuit needs only one changeover voltage as needed, utilizing the resistance (RL) of
switch. Its enormous disadvantage is, however, that the winding to limit the current (fig. 4a). A more com-
a double bifilar winding is required. This means that plicated but also more efficient and precise solution
at a specific bulk factor the wire is thinner and the is the inclusion of a current generator (fig. 4b), to
resistance is much higher. We will discuss later the achieve independence from the winding resistance.
problems involved. The supply voltage in Fig. 4b has to be higher than
Unipolar motors are still popular today because the the one in Fig. 4a. A comparison between both cir-
drive circuit appears to be simpler when implemen- cuits in the dynamic load/working order shows visi-
ted with discrete devices. However with the integra- ble differences.
ted circuits available today bipolar motors can be
driver with no more components than the unipolar Figure 4 : Resistance Current Limiter (a) and Cur-
motors. Figure 2 compares integrated unipolar and rent Generator Limiting.
bipolar devices.

BIPOLAR PRODUCES MORE TORQUE

The torque of the stepper motor is proportional to the
magnetic field intensity of the stator windings. It may
be increased only by adding more windings or by in-
creasing the current.
A natural limit against any current increase is the
danger of saturating the iron core. Though this is of
minimal importance. Much more important is the
maximum temperature rise of the motor, due to the
power loss in the stator windings. This shows one
advantage of the bipolar circuit, which, compared to
unipolar systems, has only half of the copper resi-
stance because of the double cross section of the
wire. The winding current may be increased by the
factor √2 and this produces a direct proportional af-
fect on the torque. At their power loss limit bipolar
motors thus deliver about 40 % more torque (fig. 3)
than unipolar motors built on the same frame. Figure 5 : At High Step Frequencies the Winding
If a higher torque is not required, one may either re- Current cannot Reach its Setting Value
duce the motor size or the power loss. because of the Continuous Direction
Change.
Figure 3 : Bipolar Motors Driver Deliver More
Torque than Unipolars.

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 APPLICATION NOTE

It has already been mentioned that this power of the voltage until the current, detected across RS, rea-
motor is, among others, proportional to the winding ches the desired nominal value. At that moment the
current. switch, formerly connected to + VS, changes posi-
In the dynamic working order a stepper motor chan- tion and shorts out the winding. In this way the cur-
ges poles of the winding current in the same stator rent is stored, but it decays slowly because of inner
winding after two steps. The speed with which the winding losses. The discharge time of the current is
current changes its direction in the form of an expo- determined during this phase by a monostable or
nential function depends on the specified inductan- pulse oscillator. After this time one of the pole chan-
ce, the coil resistance and on the voltage. Fig. 5a ging switches changes back to + VS, starting an in-
shows that at a low step rate the winding current IL duction recharge and the clock-regulation-cycle
reaches its nominal value VL/RL before the direction starts again.
is changed. However, if the poles of the stator win- Figure 6 : With a Step Current Slew, it is not a
dings are changed more often, which corresponds Problem to Obtain, even at High Step
to a high step frequency, the current no longer rea- frequencies Sufficient Current in Wind-
ches its saturating value because of the limited ings.
change time ; the power and also the torque dimi-
nish clearly at increasing number of revolutions (fig. Figure 7 : Constant Current Control of the Step-
5).

MORE TORQUE AT A HIGHER NUMBER

OF REVOLUTIONS
Higher torque at faster speeds are possible if a cur-
rent generator as shown in Fig. 4b is used. In this
application the supply voltage is chosen as high pos-
sible to increase the current’s rate of change. The
current generator itself limits only the phase current
and becomes active only the moment in which the
coil current has reached its set nominal value. Up to
this value the current generator is in saturation and
the supply voltage is applied directly to the winding.
Fig. 6, shows that the rate of the current increase is
now much higher than in Figure 5. Consequently at
higher step rates the desired current can be main-
tained in the winding for a longer time. The torque
decrease starts only at much higher speeds.
Fig. 7 shows the relation between torque and speed
in the normal graphic scheme, typical for the stepper
motor. It is obvious that the power increases in the per Motor Means more Torque at High
upper torque range where it is normally needed, as Frequency.
the load to be driven draws most energy from the
motor in this range. Since the only losses in this technique are the satu-

EFFICIENCY - THE DECISIVE FACTOR

The current generator combined with the high sup-
ply voltage guarantees that the rate of change of the
current in the coil is sufficiently high.
At the static condition or at low numbers of revolu-
tions, however, this means that the power loss in the
current generator dramatically increases, although
the motor does not deliver any more energy in this
range ; the efficiency factor is extremely bad.
Help comes from a switched current regulation
using the switch-transformer principle, as shown in
fig. 8. The phase winding is switched to the supply

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APPLICATION NOTE

ration loss of the switch and that of the coil resistan- From the economic point of view a reasonable and
ce, the total efficiency is very high. justifiable improvement is the "Bi-Level-Drive"
The average current that flows from the power sup- (fig. 9). This circuit concept works with two supply vol-
ply line is less than the winding current due to the tages ; with every new step of the motor both win-
concept of circuit inversion. In this way also the po- dings are connected for a short time to a high supply
wer unit is discharged. This king of phase current voltage. This considerably increases the current rate
control that has to be done separately for each mo- of change and its behaviour corresponds more or
tor phase leads to the best ratio between the sup- less to the stabilized power principle. After a pre-de-
plied electrical and delivered mechanical energy. termined the switch opens, a no a lower supply volt-
age is connected to the winding thru a diode.
POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS OF THE UNI- This kind of circuit by no means reaches the perfor-
POLAR CIRCUIT mance of the clocked stabilized power control as per
It would make no sense to apply the same principle fig. 8, as the factors : distribution voltage oscillation,
to a stabilized current controlled unipolar circuit, as B.e.m.f., thermal winding resistance, as well as the
two more switches per phase would be necessary separate coil current regulation are not considered,
for the shortening out of the windings during the free but it is this circuit that makes the simple unipolar
phase and thus the number of components would R/L-control suitable for many fields of application.
be the same as for the bipolar circuit ; and moreover,
there would be the well known torque disadvantage.

Figure 8 : With Switch Mode Current Regulation Efficiency is Increased.

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 APPLICATION NOTE

Figure 9 : At Every New Step of the Motor, it is Possible to Increase the Current Rate with a Bilevel Circuit.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF Figure 10 :The Motor has no More Torque in Cer-
THE HALF-STEP tain Step Frequency Ranges with Full
An essential advantage of a stepper motor opera- Step Driving.
ting at half-step conditions is its position resolution
increased by the factor 2. From a 3.6 degree motor
you achieve 1.8 degrees, which means 200 steps
per revolution.
This is not always the only reason. Often you are for-
ced to operate at half-step conditions in order to
avoid that operations are disturbed by the motor re-
sonance. These may be so strong that the motor has
no more torque in certain step frequency ranges and
looses completely its position (fig. 10). This is due
to the fact that the rotor of the motor, and the chan-
ging magnetic field of the stator forms a spring-
mass-system that may be stimulated to vibrate. In
practice, the load might deaden this system, but only
if there is sufficient frictional force.
In most cases half-step operation helps, as the cour-
se covered by the rotor is only half as long and the
system is less stimulated.
The fact that the half-step operation is not the domi-
nating or general solution, depends on certain di-
sadvantages :
For this reason many systems use the half-step ope-
- the half-step system needs twice as many
ration only if the clock-frequency of the motor is wi-
clock-pulses as the full-step system ; the
clock-frequency is twice as high as with the thin the resonance risk area.
full-step. The dynamic loss is higher the nearer the load mo-
ment comes to the limit torque of the motor. This ef-
- in the half-step position the motor has only fect decreases at higher numbers of revolutions.
about half of the torque of the full-step.

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APPLICATION NOTE

TORQUE LOSS COMPENSATION IN THE Figure 11 : Half Step Driving with Shaping Allows
HALF-STEP OPERATION to Increase the Motor’s Torque to
It’s clear that, especially in limit situations, the torque about 95 % of that of the Full Step.
loss in half-step is a disadvantage. If one has to
choose the next larger motor or one with a double
resolution operating in full-step because of some in-
sufficient torque percentages, it will greatly influence
the costs of the whole system.
In this case, there is an alternative solution that does
not increase the coats for the bipolar chopping sta-
bilized current drive circuit.
The torque loss in the half-step position may be
compensated for by increasing the winding current
by the factor √2 in the phase winding that remains
active. This is also permissible if, according to the
motor data sheet, the current limit has been rea-
ched, because this limit refers always to the contem-
porary supply with current in both windings in the
full-step position. The factor √2 increase in current
doubles the stray power of the active phase. The
toal dissipated power is like that of the full-step be-
cause the non-active phase does not dissipate po-
wer.
The resulting torque in the half-step position
amounts to about 90 % of that of the full-step, that
means dynamically more than 95 % torque compa-
red to the pure full-step ; a neglectable factor.
The only thing to avoid is stopping the motor at limit
current conditions in a half-step position because it
would be like a winding thermal phase overload con-
centrated in one.
The best switch-technique for the half-step phase
current increase will be explained in detail later on
Fig. 11 shows the phase current of a stepping motor
in half-step control with an without phase current in-
crease and the pertinent curves of stap frequency
and torque.

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 APPLICATION NOTE

Figure 12 : Only Two Signals for Full Step Driving are Necessary while Four (six if three-state is needed
on the output stages) for half Step.

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APPLICATION NOTE

DRIVE SIGNALS FOR THE MICRO ELEC- choose full and half-step is desired, a good logic im-
TRONIC plementation becomes quite expensive and an ap-
A direct current motor runs by itself if you supply if plication specific integrated circuit would be better.
with voltage, whereas the stepping motor needs the Such an application specific integrated circuit could
commutation signal in for of several separated but reduce the number of outputs required from a micro-
linkable commands. In 95 % of the applications to- processor from the 6 required to 3 static and dyna-
day, the origin of these digital commands is a micro- mic control line.
processor system. A typical control circuit that meets all these require-
In its simplest form, a full-step control needs only two ments is the L297 unit (fig. 13).
rectangular signals in quadrature. According to Four signals control the motor in all operations :
which phase is leading, the motor axis rotates clock- 1. CLOCK : The clock signal, giving the step-
wise or counter-clockwise, whereby the rotation ping command
speed is proportional to the clock frequency.
2. RESET : Puts the final level signals in a de-
In the half-step system the situation becomes more fined start position
complicated. The minimal two control signals beco-
me four control signals. In some conditions as many 3. DIRECTION : Determines the sense of rotation of
as six signals are needed. If the Tri-state-command the motor axis.
for the phase ranges without current, necessary for 4. HALF/FULL : Desides whether to operate in full
high motor speeds, may not be obtained from the 4 or in half-step.
control signals. Fig. 12 shows the relationship be- Another inhibit input allows the device to switch the
tween the phase current diagram and the control si- motor output into the Tri-state-mode in order to pre-
gnal for full and half-step. vent undesired movements during undefined opera-
Since all signals in each mode are in defined rela- ting conditions, such as those that could occur
tions with each other, it is possible to generate them during.
using standard logic. However, if the possibility to
Figure 13 : The L297 avoids the Use of Complicated Standard Logic to Generate Both Full and Half-step
Driving Signals Together with Chopper Current Control.

RS1 RS2 = 0.5 Ω

VF ≤ 1.2 V @ i = 2A

D1 to D8 = 2 A fast diodes { trr ≤ 200 ns

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 APPLICATION NOTE

SWITCH-MODE CURRENT REGULATION se resistors that may occur during switching will not
The primary function of the current regulation circuit cause a premature setting of the flip-flop. Thus the
is to supply enough current to the phase windings recovery current spike of the protection diodes can
of the motor, even at high step rates. be ignored and a filter in the sense line is avoided.
The functional blocks required for a switchmode cur- THE RIGHT PHASE CURRENT FOR EVE-
rent control are the same blocks required in swit- RY OPERATING CONDITION
ching power supplies ; flip-flops, comparators ; and
an oscillator are required. These blocks can easily The Chopper principle of the controller unit reveals
be included in the same IC that generates the phase that the phase current in the motor windings is con-
control signals. Let us consider the implementation trolled by two data : the reference voltage at pin 15
of chopper current control in the L297. of the controller and the value of the sense resis-tan-
ce at pins 1 and 15 of the L298, that is IL = VREF/RS.
The oscillator on pin 16 of the L297 resets the two By changing VREF it is very easy to vary the current
flip-flops at the start of each oscillator period. The within large limits. The only question is for which pur-
flip-flop outputs are then combined with the outputs pose and at which conditions.
of the translator circuit to form the 6 control signals
supplied to the power bridge (L298). More phase current means more motor torque, but
also higher energy consumption.
When activated, by the oscillator, the current in the
winding will raise, following the L/R time constant An analysis of the torque consumption for different
curve, until the voltage across the sense resistor (pin periods and load position changes shows that there
1, 15 of L298) is equal to the reference voltage input is no need for different energies.
(pin 15, L297) the comparator then sets the flip-flop, There is a high energy need during the acceleration
causing the output of the L297 to change to an equi- or break phases, whereas during continuous opera-
phase condition, thus effectively putting a short cir- tion or neutral or stop position less energy has to be
cuit across the phase winding. The bridge is supplied. A motor with its phase current continuou-
activated into a diagonally conductive state when sly oriented at the load moment limit, even with the
the oscillator resets the flip-flop at the start of the load moment lacking, consumes needlessly energy,
next cycle. that is completely transformed into heat.
Using a common oscillator to control both current re- Therefore it is useful to resolve the phase current in
gulators maintains the same chopping frequency for at least two levels controllable from the processor.
both, thus avoiding interference between the two. Fig. 18 shows a minimal configuration with two re-
sistance and one small signal transistor as change-
The functional block diagram of the L297 and the po-
over switch for the reference input. With another
wer stage (L298) are shown in Figure 14 alone with
resistance and transistor it is possible to resolve 2
the operating wave forms.
Bits and consequently 4 levels. That is sufficient for
An important characteristics of this circuit implemen- all imaginable causes.
tation is that, during the reset time, the flip-flops are Fig. 16 shows a optimal phase current diagram du-
kept reset. The reset time can be selected by selec- ring a positioning operation.
ting the impedance of the R/C network or pin 16. In
this way, the current spike and noise across the sen-

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APPLICATION NOTE

Figure 14 : Two ICs and very Few External Components Provide Complete Microprocessor to Bipolar Step-
per Motor Interface.

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 APPLICATION NOTE

Figure 15 : Because of the Set-dominant Latch Inside the L297 it is Possible to Hide Current Spikes and
Noise Across the Sense Resistors thus Avoiding External Filters.

Figure 16 : More Energy is needed During The Acceleration and break Phases Compared the Continuous
Operation, Neutral or Stop Position.

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APPLICATION NOTE

HIGH MOTOR CLOCK RESETS IN THE ses. The current diagram is not neat, the half step
HALF-STEP SYSTEM is not carried out correctly (fig. 17 center).
In the half-step position one of the motor phases has For this reason the L297 controller-unit generates
to be without current. If the motor moves from a full- an inhibit-command for each phase bridge, that
step position into a half-step position, this means switches the specific bridge output in the half-step
that one motor winding has to be completely di- position into Tri-state. In this way the coil can start
scharged. From the logic diagram this means for the swinging freely over the external recovery diodes
high level bridge an equivalent status of the input si- and discharge quickly. The current decrease rate of
gnals A/B, for example in the HIGH-status. For the change corresponds more or less to the increase
coil this means short circuit (fig. 17 up) and conse- rate of change (fig. 17 below).
quently a low reduction of the current. In case of high
In case of full-step operation both inhibit-outputs of
half-step speeds the short circuit discharge time
the controller (pin 5 and 8) remain in the HIGH-sta-
constant of the phase winding is not sufficient to di-
scharge the current during the short half-step pha- tus.

Figure 17 : The Inhibit Signal Turns Off Immediately the Output Stages Allowing thus a Faster Current De-
cay (mandatory with half-step operation).

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 APPLICATION NOTE

Figure 18 : With This Configuration it is Possible to Obtain Half-step with Shaping Operation and Therefore
More Torque.

MORE TORQUE IN THE HALF-STEP POSI- The advantages are very important :
TION
A topic that has already been discussed in detail. So
- no more phenomena of resonance

we will limit our considerations on how it is carried - drastic noise reduction

out, in fact quite simply because of the reference - connected gearings and loads are treated
with care
voltage controlled phase current regulation.
With the help of the inhibit-signals at outputs 5 and - the position resolution may be increased fur-
ther.
8 of the controller, which are alternatively active only
when the half-step control is programmed, the ref- However, the use of the L297 controller-unit descri-
erence voltage is increased by the factor 1.41 with bed until now is no longer possible of the more sem-
a very simple additional wiring (fig. 18), as soon as plicated form of the phase current diagram the
one of the two inhibit-signals switches LOW. This in- Controller may become simpler in its functions.
creases the current in the active motorphase pro-
portionally to the reference voltage and Fig. 20 shows us an example with the L6505 unit.
compensates the torque loss in this position. Fig. 19 This IC contains nothing more than the clocked pha-
shows clearly that the diagram of the phase current se current regulation which works according to the
is almost sinusoidal, in principle the ideal form of the same principle as L297. The four control signals
current graph. emitting continuously a full-step program are now
generated directly by the microprocessor. In order to
To sum up we may say that this half-step version of- obtain a sinusoidal phase current course the refer-
fers most advantages. The motor works with poor ence voltage inputs of the Controller are modulated
resonance and a double position resolution at a with sinusoidal half-waves.
torque, that is almost the same as that of the full-
The microprocessor that controls the direction of the
step.
current phase with the control signals also genera-
tes the two analog signals.
BETTER GLIDING THAN STEPPING
For many applications a microprocessor with dedi-
If a stepper motor is supposed to work almost gliding cated digital to analog converters can be chosen.
and not step by step, the form of the phase current Eliminating the need for separate D/A circuits.
diagram has to be sinusoidal.
About 5 bit have proved to be the most suitable sud-

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APPLICATION NOTE

division of the current within one full-step. A higher stepper motor to 1.8° with the same precision as a
resolution brings no measurable advantages. On 1.8° - motor in full-step will be received, as there are
the contrary, the converter clock frequency is alrea- several limits :
dy very high in case of low motor revolutions and The rise rate of the torque diagram corresponding
very difficult to process by the processor-software. to the twisting angle of the rotor for the 7.2° - motor
It is recommended to reduce the D/A resolution at is flatter by a factor of 4 then for the original 1.8° -
high step frequencies. motor. Consequently with friction or load moment,
the position error is larger (fig. 21).
In case of higher motor revolutions it is more conve-
nient to operate only in full-step, since harmonic For most of the commercial motors there isn’t a suf-
control is no longer an advantage as the current has ficiently precise, linear relationship between a sinu-
only a triangular waveform in the motor winding. soidal-current-diagram and an exact micro step
angle. The reason is a dishomogeneous magnetic
field between the rotor and the two stator fields.
PRECISION OF THE MICRO STEP Above all, problems have to be expected with mo-
tors with high pole feeling. However, there are spe-
Any desired increase of the position resolution be- cial stepper motors in which an optimized micro step
tween the full step position has its physical limits. operation has already been considered during the
Those who think it is possible to resolve a 7.2° - construction phase.
Figure 19 : The Half-step with Shaping Positioning is Achieved by Simply Changing Reference Voltages.

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 APPLICATION NOTE

Figure 20 : L6506 Unit Gives The Possibility to Modulate Separately the Two Reference Voltage Inputs in
Order to obtain a Sinusoidal Phase Current.

15/17
APPLICATION NOTE

Figure 21 : Better Resolution is achieved with Low Degree Motor but More torque is delivered with high
Degree Motor.

CONCLUSIONS Working in limit areas, where improved electronics

The above described application examples of mo- with optimized drive sequences allow the use of less
dern integrated circuits show that output and effi- expensive motors, it is even possible to obtain a cost
ciency of stepper motors may be remarkably reduction.
increased without any excessive expense increase
like before.

16/17
 APPLICATION NOTE

Information furnished is believed to be accurate and reliable. However, SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics assumes no responsibility for
the consequences of use of such information nor for any infringement of patents or other rights of third parties which may result from its
use. No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any patent or patent rights of SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics. Specifica-
tions mentioned in this publication are subject to change without notice. This publication supersedes and replaces all information pre-
viously supplied. SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics products are not authorized for use as critical components in life support devices or
systems without express written approval of SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics.

© 1995 SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics - All Rights Reserved

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