Stepper motor driver in a tiny package saves space and simplifies design

Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH has released an ultra-small and highly integrated stepping-motor driver that assists in miniaturising product designs and enhancing reliability while cutting the BOM and time to market.

The new IC, TB67S549FTG, has an operating output voltage range from 4.5V to 33V and delivers an operating current of up to 1.2A. It is ideal for various constant current control stepper motor applications, including those in office automation and commercial and industrial equipment. It is also suitable for surveillance cameras and projectors.

The integrated ADMD system guarantees an efficient PWM current control under every condition. With the integrated clock interface, up to 32 micro steps can be realised.

Housed in a 4mm x 4mm QFN24 package, it occupies just 64% of the mounting area of its predecessor IC and, therefore, saves circuit-board space and costs. Furthermore, the internal monitoring circuitry for constant-current control does not need an external current sense resistor, and the charge-pump capacitor is also incorporated, thereby reducing circuit size and component count further.

Despite the smaller package size, the ON-resistance of the motor driver output block is at just 1.2-Ohm (typical), thereby keeping power dissipation low and allowing greater efficiency. Also, it has a power-saving sleep mode that cuts the current consumption to under 1μA, making it widely usable for 12V/24V power supply applications.

The device also incorporates a complete set of protection functions, including overcurrent detection, thermal shutdown, and undervoltage lockout.

A compact evaluation board and the stepping motor IC are available. Created in partnership with MIKROE, the Stepper 12 Click board is supported by a mikroSDK-compliant library and simplifies software development.