Microchip Technology Motor Control for Stepper Motors

The rotor of a permanent magnet stepper motor consists of permanent magnets, and the stator has two pairs of windings. Just as the rotor aligns with one of the stator poles, the second phase is energized. The two phases alternate on and off and also reverse polarity.

There are four steps:

One phase lags the other phase by one step. This is equivalent to one-fourth of an electrical cycle or 90°
Poles are formed using a single magnet mounted in line with the rotor axis and two pole pieces with many teeth
The teeth are staggered to produce many poles
The stator poles of a real stepper motor also have many teeth. The teeth are arranged so that the two phases are still 90° out of phase

Recommended Products

Microchip offers a complete line of dual full-bridge drivers designed to drive bipolar stepper motors. These can be easily interfaced with any microcontroller. Microchip's award-winning 8-bit PIC® MCUs are an excellent solution for traditional stepper motor control.

For 8-bit PIC MCUs for Stepper Motor Control, Start with the: PIC16F917
For advanced closed loop stepper, motor control Microchip’s dsPIC® family of digital signal controllers (DSCs) offer DSP performance and advanced motor control peripherals to enable sub-micro-stepping, high-speed rotation, and full torque output.

For dsPIC DSCs for Stepper Motor Control, Start with the: dsPIC33FJ32MC204
Microchip offers MIPS and ARM Cortex MCUs for high-performance, 32-bit motor control. These devices feature high-performance peripherals tailored for high-speed, closed-loop motor control.