Switching Circuit for the stepper motor Close switches in order 1, 2, 3, and 4 to turn the rotor clockwise Close

switches in reverse order - 4, 3, 2, and 1 to change rotation to the opposite (counter-clockwise) direction

Stepper Motor Typical Driver Circuit

F = filter block C = Up/Down Counter D = Decoder S = Electronic Switch (transistor)

Typical Switching Circuit Decoder provides logic output to turn QA On/Off Amplifier A conditions the logic pulses When QA turns On, it conducts current in the motor phase A winding When QA turns Off, D and RS conduct current to discharge the phase winding

A variable-reluctance motor

A variable-reluctance motor is constructed from ferromagnetic material with salient poles as shown in Fig. 39.2. The stator is made from a stack of steel laminations and has six equally-spaced projecting poles (or teeth) each wound with an exciting coil. The rotor which may he solid or laminated has four projecting teeth of the same width as the stator teeth. As seen, there are three independent suitor circuits or phases A. B and C and each one can be energized by a direct current pulse from the drive circuit (not shown in the figure. A simple circuit arrangement for supplying current to the stator coils in proper sequence is shown in Fig. 39.2.e. The six stator coils are connected in 2-coil groups to form three separate circuits called phases. Each phase has its own independent switch. Diametrically opposite pair of stator coil connected in series such that when one tooth becomes a N-pole, the other one becomes a S-pole. Although shown as mechanical switches in Fig. 39.2 (e) in actual practice, switching of phase currents is done with the help of solid-state control. When there is no current in the suitor coils, the rotor is completely free to rotate. Energising one or more stator coils causes the rotor to step forward (or backward) to a position that forms a path of least reluctance with the magnetized stator teeth. The step angle of this three-phase, four rotor teeth motor is = 360/ 4 x 3 = 30

Working : The motor has following modes of operation I-phase-ON or Full-step Operation Fig. 39.2 (a) shows the position of the rotor when switch S1 has been closed for energizing phase A. A magnetic field with its axis along the stator poles of phase A is created. The rotor is therefore, attracted into a position of minimum reluctance with diametrically opposite rotor teeth 1 and 3 lining up with stator teeth 1 and 4 respectively. Closing S2 and opening S1, energizes phase B causing rotor teeth 2 and 4 to align with stator teeth 3 and 6 respectively as shown in Fig. 39.2 (b). The rotor rotates through full-step of 30 in the clockwise (CW) direction, Similarly, when S3 is closed after opening S2, phase C is energized which causes

rotor teeth 1 and 3 to line up with stator teeth 2 and 5 respectively as shown in Fig. 39.2 (c). The rotor rotates through an additional angle of 30 in the clockwise (CW) direction. Next if S3 is opened and S1 is closed again, the rotor teeth 2 and 4 will align with stator teeth 4 and 1 respectively thereby making the rotor turn through a further angle of 30 as shown in Fig. 39.2 (d). By now the total angle turned is 90. As each switch is closed and the preceding one opened, the rotor each time rotates through an angle of 30. By repetitively closing the switches in the sequence 1-2-3-1 and thus energizing stator phases in sequence ABCA etc, the rotor will rotate clockwise in 30 steps. If the switch sequence is made 3-2-1-3 which makes phase sequence CBAC (or ACB), the rotor will rotate anticlockwise. This mode of operation is known as lphase-ON mode or full-step operation and is the simplest and widely-used way of making the motor step. The stator phase switching truth table is shown in Fig. 39.2 (f). It may be noted that the direction of the stator magnetizing current is not significant because a stator pole of either magnetic polarity will always attract the rotor pole by inducing opposite polarity. 2-phase-ON Mode In this mode of operation, two stator phases are excited simultaneously. When phases A and B are energized together, the rotor experiences torques from both phases and comes to rest at a point mid-way between the two adjacent full-step positions. If the stator phases are switched in the sequence AR, BC, CA, AB etc., the motor will take full steps of 30" each (as in the 1-phase-ON mode) but its equilibrium positions will be interleaved between the full-step positions. The phase switching truth table for this mode is shown in Fig. 39.3 (a).

The 2-phase-ON mode provides greater holding torque and a much better damped single-stack response than the I -phase-ON mode of operation. Half-step Operation Half-step operation or half-stepping can be obtained by exciting the three phases in the sequence A, AB, B, BC, C etc. i.e. alternately in the I-phase-ON and 2-phaseON modes. It is sometime known as wave' excitation and it causes the rotor to advance in steps of 15 i.e. half the full-step angle. The truth table for the phase pulsing sequence in half -stepping is shown in Fig. 39.3 (b). Half-stepping can he illustrated with the help of Fig. 39.4 where only three successive pulses have been considered. Energizing only phase A causes the rotor position shown in Fig. 39.4 (a). Energizing phases A and B simultaneously moves the rotor to the position shown in Fig. 39.4 (b) where rotor has moved through half a step only. Energizing only phase B moves the rotor through another half-step as shown in Fig. 39.4 (c). With each pulse, the rotor moves 30 /2 = 15 in the CCW direction.

It will be seen that in half stepping mode, the step angle is halved thereby doubling the resolution. Moreover, continuous half-stepping produces a smoother shaft rotation Microstepping It is also known as mini-stepping. It utilizes two phases simultaneously as in 2phase ON mode but with the two currents deliberately made unequal (unlike in half-stepping where the two phase currents have to be kept equal). The current in phase A is held constant while that in phase B is increased in very small increments until maximum current is reached. The current in phase A is then reduced to zero using the same very small increments. In this way, the resultant step becomes very small and is called a microstep. For example, a VR stepper motor with a resolution of 200 steps/ rev ( = 1.8) can with microstepping have a resolution of 20,000 steps / rev ( = 0.018). Stepper motors employing microstepping technique are used in printing and phototypesetting where very fine resolution is called for. As seen, microstepping provides smooth low-speed operation and high resolution. Torque: If Ia is the d.c. current pulse passing through phase A, the torque produced by it is given by T= (1 / 2) Ia2dL / d VR stepper motors have a high (torque / inertia) ratio giving high rates of acceleration and fast response. A possible

disadvantage is the absence of detent torque which is necessary to retain the rotor at the step position in the event of a power failure. Multi-stack VP Stepper Motor So, far, we have discussed single-stack VR motors though multi-stack motors are also available which provide smaller step angles. The multi-stack motor is divided along its axial length into a number of magnetically-isolated sections or stacks which can he excited by a separate winding or phase. Both stator and rotor have the same number of poles. The stators have a common frame while rotors have a common shaft as shown in Fig. 39.5 (a) which represents a three-stack VR motor. The teeth of all the rotors are perfectly aligned with respect to themselves but the stator teeth of various stacks have a progressive angular displacement as shown in the developed diagram of Fig. 39.5 (b), for phase excitation.

Three-stack motors are most common although motors with upto seven stacks and phases are available. They have step angles in the range of 2 to 15. For example in a six-stack VR motor having 20 rotor teeth the step angle, = 36o/ 6 x 20 = 3.

Permanent-Magnet Stepping Motor Construction: Its stator construction is similar to that of the single-stack VR motor discussed above but the rotor is made of a permanent-magnet material like magnetically 'hard' ferrite. As shown in the Fig. 39.6 (a). the stator has projecting poles but the rotor is cylindrical and has radially magnetized permanent magnets. The operating principle of such a motor can be understood with the help of Fig. 39.6 (a) where the rotor has two poles and the stator has four poles. Since two stator poles are energized by one winding, the motor has two windings or phases marked A and B. The step angle of this motor = 360/m*Nr = 360/2*2 = 90 or = (4-2)*360/2*4 =90

Working. When a particular stator phase is energized, the rotor magnetic poles move into alignment with the excited stator poles. The stator windings A and B can be excited with either polarity current (A refers to positive current iA in the phase A and A- to negative current iA+ ). Fig.39.6 (a) shows the condition when phase A is excited with positive current i A. Here = 0. If excitation is now switched to phase B as in Fig. 39.6 (b), the rotor rotates by a full step of 90 in the clockwise direction. Next, when phase A is excited with negative current iA- the rotor turns through another 90 in CW direction as shown in Fig. 39.6 (c). Similarly excitation of phase B with iB- further turns the rotor through another 90 in the same direction as shown in Fig. 39.6 (d). After this, excitation of phase A with iA+ makes the rotor turn through one complete revolution of 360.

It will be noted that in a permanent-magnet stepper motor, the direction of rotation depends on the polarity of the phase currents as tabulated below

Truth tables for three possible current sequences for producing clockwise rotation are given in Fig. 39.7. Table No.1 applies when only one phase is energized at a time in 1-phase-ON mode giving step size of 90. Table No.2 represents 2-phase-ON mode when two phases are energized simultaneously. The resulting steps are of the same size but the effective rotor pole positions are midway between the two adjacent full-step positions. Table No.3 represents half-stepping when 1-phase-ON and 2-phase-ON modes are used alternately. In this case, the step size becomes half of the normal step or one- fourth of the pole-pitch (i.e. 90' / 2 = 45 or 180 / 4 = 45).

Microstepping can also be employed which will give further reduced step sizes thereby increasing the resolution. Advantage and Disadvantage: Since the permanent magnets of the motor do not require external exciting current, it has a low power requirement but possesses a high detent torque as compared to a VR stepper motor. This motor has higher inertia and hence slower acceleration. However, it produces more torque - per ampere stator current than a VR motor. Since it is difficult to manufacture a small permanent-magnet rotor with large number of poles, the step size in such motors is relatively large ranging from 30 to 90. However, recently disc rotors have been manufactured which are magnetized axially to give a small step size and low inertia.

Construction: It combines the features of the variable reluctance and permanent -magnet stepper motors. The rotor consists of a permanent- magnet that is magnetized axially to create a pair of poles marked N and S in Fig. 39.8 (b). Two end caps are fitted at both ends of this axial magnet. These end-caps consist of equal number of teeth which are magnetized by the respective polarities of the axial magnet. The rotor teeth of one end-cap are offset by a half tooth pitch so that a tooth at one end-cap coincides with a slot at the other. The cross- Hybrid stepper motor sectional views perpendicular to the shaft along X-X and Y-Y axes are shown in Fig. 39.8 (a) and (c) respectively. As seen, the stator consists of four stator poles which arc excited by two stator windings in pairs. The rotor has five N-poles at one end and five S-poles at the other end of the axial magnet. The step angle of such a motor is =954)*360/5*4 = 18

Working:

In Fig.39.8 (a). phase A is shown excited such that the top stator pole is a S-pole so that it attracts the top N-pole of the rotor and brings it in line with the A-A' axis. To turn the rotor, phase A is denergized and phase B is excited positively. The rotor will turn in turn in CCW direction by a full step of 18. Next phase A and B are energized negatively one after the other to produce further rotations of 18' each in the same direction. The truth table shown in Fig. 39.9 (a). For producing clockwise rotation the phase sequence should be A+; B-; A-; B+;A+ etc.

Practical hybrid stepping motors are built with more rotor poles than shown in Fig. 39.9 in order to give higher angular resolution. Hence, the Stator poles are often slotted or castleated to increase the number of stator teeth. As shown in Fig. 39.9 (b), each of the eight stator poles has been alloted or castleated into five smaller poles making Ns = 8 x 5= 40. If rotor has 50 teeth, then step angle = (50 - 40) x 360 / 50 x 40 = 1.8. Step angle can also be decreased (and hence resolution increased) by having more than two stacks on the rotor. This motor achieves small step sizes easily and with a simpler magnet structure whereas a purely PM motor requires a multiple permanent-magnet. As compared to VR motor, hybrid motor requires less excitation to achieve a given torque. However, like a PM motor, this motor also develops good detent torque provided by the permanent-magnet flux. This torque holds the rotor stationary while the power is switched off. This fact is quite helpful because the motor can be left overnight without fear of its being accidentally moved to a new position,