TOP-Electronics: New Dual-Axis Stepper Motor Controller-Driver System-on-Chip from Trinamic

With its integrated motion control hardware, the TMC5062 can relieve any MCU with a SPI or single wire UART interface from all real-time motor calculations, including positioning and velocity ramp calculation. Trinamic´s patented sixPoint™ ramp generator supports stepper motor calculation of high-resolution current values with up to 256 micro-steps per full-step. And its integrated power stage technology–for up to 1.5A peak current per motor–incorporates Trinamic’s proven spreadCycle™ chopper unit for smooth commutation.

Trinamic’s latest innovation, dcStep, addresses the need for stepper motors to maintain positional (or step) self-awareness without costly feedback circuitry. Without feedback circuits, significant operating margins must be implemented so that motor torque and velocity limits are not exceeded. Trinamic’s new dcStep technology allows for momentary increases in torque to compensate for sudden increases in load resistance without losing step count, significantly reducing the safety margin that would otherwise be required by a stepper motor control system.

“Trinamic is focused on continual improvements in stepper motor system design,” explained Trinamic Founder and CEO Michael Randt. “Our new dcStep technology lowers system cost and energy consumption by shrinking excess safety margin, which reduces the motor size required for a specific application. This, in turn, leads to cooler operating temps, more compact board design, and the elimination of fans and heat sinks. A single technology like dcStep accelerates miniaturization, efficiency and ease-of use.“

Connected to a host microcontroller through an SPI or single wire interface, the TMC5062 executes all real-time position and velocity stepper motor calculations, and also directly drives coil currents for dual integrated stepper motor drives. This highly integrated dual-axis motion controller is ideal for pan and tilt control used in a wide variety of high volume applications: in millions of IP video cameras being deployed globally for security, border control and other remote viewing applications; in solar power heliostat mirror arrays, where tens of thousands to millions of mirrors reflect sunlight throughout the day to power a steam turbine for electricity generation; in medical and lab applications, like in-vitro analysis, that require X/Y motion control; and in 3D printers.

With a 1.5A peak current, the TMC5062 is ideal for use with stepper motors up to NEMA size 17, covering most of the typical hybrid stepper applications. The TMC5062 is software compatible with Trinamic’s popular dual-axis TMC5031 motion control and driver IC, upgrading it’s functionality with dcStep and an integrated ABN quadrature encoder interface. The new device implements a subset of relevant instructions for dual-axis operation and for six-point acceleration profiles.

To support rapid product development and prototyping, Trinamic offers a complete TMC5062 design kit with evaluation board and intuitive PC-based development software. The TMC5062 also comes with free reference source code, schematics and board layouts.

More information: TOP-Electronics, +31 180 580 492, sales@TOP-electronics.com