Stepper Motors

Stepper Motor
A stepper motor is a motor that moves in steps.

A stepper motor is one whose shaft moves in precise

angular increments for each electrical input.
Typical step sizes are 2°, 2.5° ,3°, 7.5° , 15°, 30°.
 Stepper Motor…
 salient poles on both stator and rotor.
The stator poles are wound with coils
which carry relatively long pulses of
current.
The rotor poles are made from either
magnetically soft or hard iron.

 Ns always different from Nr.

 Stepper motor operation
 Step angle β
angle through which motor shaft rotates for each
command pulse
β = (Ns~Nr)*360 / (Ns*Nr)
or β = 360 / (m*Nr)
where Ns=No. of stator poles (teeth)
Nr=No. of rotor poles (teeth)
m=No. of phases

 Displacement = β * No of control pulses

(Rotation) Speed =(60*f) / SR rpm

step resolution SR=360 / β step/rev

 Comparison to Servo Motors
Servo Motor Stepper Motor
Position Control Position Control
 require some form of often open loop
analog feedback
 not subject to this at high accelerations
problem with variable loads, all
rotor information is lost,
and closed loop is
required for accurate
control
 Types of Stepper Motors
 Permanent Magnet

 Variable Reluctance

Hybrid
Permanent Magnet Stepper motors
Rotor is made of permanent magnetic
Material
No teeth on rotor
No freewheeling
more torque during rotation
Less acceleration
Difficult to make small step pm rotors with
a large number of poles. i.e. step sizes
are limited to 30° - 90°.
 Permanent Magnet
Stepper motors…
 Full Stepping

A-C 0˚
B-D 90˚

 Half stepping

A-C 0˚
A-C,B-D 45˚
B-D 90˚
 Variable Reluctance
Stepper motors
 No permanent magnet
 Free wheeling
possible

 A - 0˚
C - 15˚
B - 30˚
 Variable Reluctance
Stepper motors….

less torque
 Hybrid Stepper motors

 A hybrid stepping motor has

characteristics of both PM and VR motors

the rotor is a permanent magnet but has

blades like VR motors
Rotor is magnetised axially to create the
poles
motor has very high torque and very small,
precise step increments
Hybrid Stepper motors
 Hybrid Stepper motors….
200 rotor teeth and rotate
at 1.80 step angles.

Also available in 0.9ºand

3.6º step angle
configurations.

used in a wide variety of

industrial applications.
 Full step Mode
• One phase is energized at a time
Full step Mode
 Full step Mode

Animation shows how coils are energized for full steps

Half Step mode
 Half Step mode
the second phase is turned on before the first
phase is turned off. Thus, sometimes both
phases are energized at the same time.
During the half-steps the rotor is held in between
the two full-step positions.
A half-step motor has twice the resolution of a
full step motor.
Fast response
Absence of detent torque
Half Step mode
 Micro Stepping Mode
Smooth and low speed operation with high
resolution

Printing, photo type setting

A – constant B –increased by very small

increments till 1 or max.
A -decreased by very B – constant
small steps till 0 or min
 Advantages
 They produce the highest torque at low
speeds

 holding torque (not present in DC motors)

 Rotor has no winding, commutator or

brushes – quite, robust and reliable
operation
 Applications
 Precise positioning and speed control
 Open loop position control
 Torque : 1µNm to 40 Nm
 Power : 1w to 2500w
 Applications

 Film Drive
 Optical Scanner
 Printers
 ATM Machines
 Computer peripherals
 IC fabrication
 Applications

 robotics

 digital control systems

 tape drivers
 disk drives
 tool positioning
 process control
 X-Y recorders