Stepper Motor

Classification of Electrical Motors

 Stepper motor
• The stepper or stepping motor has a rotor movement in
discrete steps.
• The angular rotation is determined by the number of pulses
fed into the control circuit.
• Each input pulse initiates the drive circuit which Produces
one step of angular movement.
• The device may be considered as a digital to analogue
converter.
• There are three most popular types of rotor arrangements:
1. Variable reluctance (VR) type
2. Permanent magnet (PM) type
3. Hybrid type, a combination of VR and PM.

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Step Angle
• The angle by which the rotor of a stepper motor moves when one
pulse is applied to the stator is called step angle.
• The resolution of positioning of stepper motor is decided by the
step angle.
• Smaller the step angle the higher is the resolution of positioning of
the motor.
• The resolution of a motor is the number of steps complete in one
revolution of the rotor.
• Higher the resolution, greater is the accuracy of positioning of
objects by the motor.
• Stepper motor are realizable for very small step angles.
• Some precision motors can make 1000(angle 0.36) steps in one
revolution.
• A standard motor will have a step angle of 1.8 with 200 steps per
revolution.
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• Operation of stepper Motor at high speeds is called “Slewing”. If f is the stepping
frequency (or) pulse rate in pulses per sec and step angle, then

• When stepping rate is increased quickly, the motor losses synchronism and stops.
 Variable Reluctance (VR) Stepper Motor
Construction:
• Two important parts of a stepper Motor are
i. Stator ii. Rotor
• The motor has a stator which is usually wound for three
phases.
• The stator consists of common outer frame which is used to
enclose the stepper motor and protect it.
• The salient poles of the stator are fixed under the stator outer
frame. The stator poles are laminated and assembled in a
single stack.
• The stator poles are usually made up of soft steel (or) high
graded silicon content steel in order to reduce the hysteresis
losses and they are laminated to reduce the eddy current loss
in the stepper Motor.
• Usually there may be six stator poles and concentrated exciting
windings are placed around each pole.
• The exciting windings are usually made up of copper material and
pair of exciting windings form a phase in the stepper Motor. So there
are 3 phases in the stepper Motor which is considered.
• Each phase is excited separately through a switch by the DC source,
which is also shown in the Fig 2.1.
• The direction of rotation of the stepper Motor depends upon the
sequence we excite the windings.
• The Rotor also has projecting poles which may be laminated (or)
solid soft steel material. It is usually made up of ferromagnetic
Material and it may be single (or) multi-stack type
• The multi-stack type rotor gives smaller step angle.
• Generally, number of stator poles will not be equal to number of
rotor poles for proper operation. Here we consider four rotor poles.
The rotor pole do not have windings.
Principle of Operation
• The operation is based on various reluctance positions of rotor with respect to stator.
• When any one phase of the stator is excited, it produces its magnetic field whose axis lies
along the poles of the phase which is excited.
• Then the rotor moves to minimum reluctance position.
• That is, the rotor axis aligns itself to the stator field axis.
1) 1 Phase ON operation
2) 2 Phase ON operation
3) Half Step Operation

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 1)1-Phase On Operation
• when the phases A,B,C are
excited in sequence ie., one
after the other with the help
of switches S1,S2 and S3.
• When the phase AA’ is
excited with the switch S1
closed, then stator Magnet
Axis exist along the poles
formed due to AA’ (ie)
vertically.
• Then the rotor adjust itself in
a minimum reluctance
position and occupies along
AA’-1, 3, rotor poles. This is
the initial position (ie) 0°.
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• When the BB’ phase is excited with the switch S2 closed, and de-energise the AA’ phase
with the switch S1 opened, then stator magnetic axis shifts along the poles formed due to
BB’ and the rotor tries to align itself in the minimum reluctance position and turns through
30° step angle in clockwise direction.
• Open the switch S2 and de-energise the BB’ phase and close the switch S3 and energise the
CC’ phase.
• So that the stator magnetic axis shifts along the poles formed due to CC’ and the rotor tries
to align itself in the minimum reluctance position and rotor rotates by a step angle of 30° in
the same direction.
• The stepper motor continues to move in steps of 30 degree for each excitation either in
clockwise or counter clockwise direction.
• The switching sequence continues as follows
A,B,C,A for Clockwise rotation and
A,C,B,A for Counter Clockwise rotation.
If i is the current passing through the phases which are excited then
the torque developed by the motor is given as

Where L is the inductance in Henry and is the displacement

angle in degree.
2) 2-Phase On Operation
• 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 AB,
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
• The 2-phase-ON mode provides greater holding
torque and a much better damped single-stack
response than the l-phase-ON mode of operation.
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3) 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 1-phase-ON and 2-
phase-ON 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.
 • where only three successive
pulses have been
considered. Energizing only
phase A causes the rotor
position shown in Fig. 39.4
(a).
• Energising 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.
• Energising 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.
• continuous half-stepping produces a smoother shaft rotation.
• the step angle is halved thereby doubling the resolution
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 (4) Microstepping
• It is also known as mini-stepping. It utilizes two phases simultaneously as in 2-
phase-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 (B = 1.8°) can
with microstepping have a resolution of 20,000 steps / rev (B = 0.018°).
• Stepper motors employing microstepping technique are used in printing and
phototypesetting.
• microstepping provides smooth low-speed operation and high resolution.
Advantages of VR stepper Motor:
1. High torque to inertia ratio
2. High rates of acceleration.
3. Fast dynamic response
4. Simple & low cost
5. Rotor has no windings.
Disadvantages of VR stepper Motor:
1. No detent torque
2. Low Efficiency at low voltages and stepping rate
3. Normally available in 3.6 degree to 30 degree
2) Multi-Stack Variable Reluctance Stepper Motor
• M identical single stack variable reluctance motors with their rotors mounted
on a single shaft.
• The stators and rotors have the same number of poles (or teeth) and same
poles pitch.
• All the stator poles are aligned in a Multi-Stack motor. But the rotor poles
are displaced by 1/m of the pole pitch angle from each other.
• The stator windings of each stack form one phase as the stator pole
windings are excited simultaneously. Thus, the number of phases and the
number of stacks are the same.
• There are 12 stator and rotor poles in each stack. The pole pitch for the 12
pole rotor is 30, and the step angle or the rotor pole teeth are displaced by
10 degrees from each other.
• Let Nr be the number of rotor teeth and m be the number of stacks or
phases.
• Hence, tooth pitch is represented by the equation shown below:
• When the phase winding A is excited the rotor teeth of stack A is aligned with
the stator teeth as shown in the figure below:

• When phase A is de-energized, and phase B is excited, rotor teeth of stack B are aligned
with the stator teeth.
• The rotor movement is about 10 degrees in the anticlockwise direction.
• The motor moves one step which is equal to ½ of the pole pitch due to a change of
excitation from stack A to stack B.
• The figure below shows the position of the stator and rotor teeth when phase B
is excited.

• Similarly, now phase B is de-energized, and phase C is excited. The rotor

moves another step of 1/3 of the pole pitch in the anticlockwise direction.
 Permanent Magnet (PM) Stepper Motor
• This motor has got two important part (i.e) stator & rotor.
• The stator of this type of motor is multi-polar. Assume that the stator has four
poles.
• Its stator construction is similar to VR stepper Motor.
• It consists of stator outer frame, stator core and stator winding.
• The stator core is laminated and made of soft steel and has projecting poles.
• The stator winding is wound on each pole individually and form a phase and
made of copper material.
• The rotor is also smooth cylindrical type or projecting pole type and it is made
up of permanent magnet material like hard ferrite.
• Because of this construction, it is called as permanent magnet stepper Motor.
Usually the rotor has only two poles.
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Advantages of PM stepper Motor:
1. Low power requirement
2. High detent torque.
3. Rotor does not require external exciting current
4. It produces more torque per ampere stator current
Disadvantages of PM stepper Motor:
1. Motor has high inertia
2. Slower Acceleration
3. Step size is from 30 degree to 90 degree
4. The stepper motor with permanent magnet rotors with large number of poles cannot be
manufactured in small size.
5. Hence small steps are not possible. Because of presence of permanent magnet, detent
torque is present in the motor.
 Hybrid Stepper Motor
Construction
• It uses the principles of both variable
reluctance and permanent Magnet stepper
motor.
• Constructionally also, it has the
combination of VR & PM stepper Motor.
This motor has also got two important
parts (ie) stator & Rotor.
• The stator has got outer frame, stator core,
stator poles & stator pole teeths and stator
winding. The outer frame covers the entire
machine and protects it.
• Under the stator frame, stator core is fixed
with solid or laminated soft steel material
to reduce eddy current & hysteresis loses.
• The stator may be single or multi-stack configuration. Usually the stator has got 8 poles
and each poles has 2 to 6 teeths.
• There is only two phases winding, made of copper material. The coils on poles, 1,3,5 & 7
are connected in series to form phase while the coils on poles 2,4,6 & 8 are connected in
series to form phase B.
• The winding A & B are excited alternately.
• In this motor, the rotor has permanent magnet which is fixed in the middle of the rotor
and it is magnetised in the axial direction.
• Surrounding the rotor permanent magnet, rotor teeths are framed which are laminated
and made up of soft steel material.
• The rotor teeths are selected according to the step angle required.
 Working Principle
• This motor uses the permanent magnet & variable reluctance principle combined.
• In this motor, the rotor flux is produced by the permanent magnet and it is directed by
the rotor teeths to the appropriate parts of the airgap.
• Consider the hybrid motor has two phase (ie) phase A & phase B. When phase A is
excited by the positive stator current then stator poles 1 and 5 becomes south and 3 and 7
becomes north.
• Now the rotor teeths with north and south polarity will come into alignment with the
stator pole teeths.
• Similarly when phase B is excited and phase A is unexcited then the rotor will move by
one step angle.
• Suppose the rotor has 18 teeths then the step angle,
• The torque in a hybrid stepper motor is produced by the interaction of rotor and the
stator produced fluxes.
• The rotor flux remains constant because it is produced by the permanent magnet. The
motor torque Tm is proportional to the phase current in the stator.
Advantages
1. The rotation angle of the motor is proportional to the input pulse.
2. The motor has full torque at stand still (if the winding are energized)
3. Precise positioning and repeatability of movement since good stepper motor s have an
accuracy of 3 –5% of a step and this error is non cumulative from one step to the next.
4. Excellent response to starting stopping reversing.
5. Very reliable since there are no contact brushes in the motor. Therefore the life to the motor
is simply dependent on the life of the bearing.
6. The motors response to digital input pulses provides open-loop control, making the motor
simpler and less costly to control.
7. It is possible to achieve very low speed synchronous rotation with a load that is directly
coupled to the shaft.
8. A wide range of rotational speed is proportional to the frequency of the input pulses.
Disadvantages
1. Resonance can occur if not properly controlled.
2. Not easy to operate at extremely high speeds.
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 Application of stepper Motor
1. Used for operational control in computer peripherals, textile industry, IC fabrications
& Robotics etc.
2. It is also used in typewriters, line printers, tape drivers, floppy disk drives, CNC
machines, X-Y plotters etc.
3. It is also used in commercial, military & medical applications.