TI Launches Motor Drivers for Stepper, Brushed DC Motors

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has expanded its DRV8x motor driver family with eight new devices supporting up to 5A for higher-current bipolar stepper and brushed DC motors. The new DRV8x motor drivers provide RDS(ON) as low as 100mΩ, more than 60 percent less than the previous generation, enabling higher current and better thermal performance. Microstepping options within the family include up to 256 microsteps and greater with an external microcontroller or up to 32 microsteps with an on-chip indexer.

The bipolar stepper motor drivers have 2.5A to 5A peak current options and control interfaces for phase-enable (PH/EN), step/direction with indexer and pulse-width modulation (PWM) control. The devices support 1/256 and greater microstepping, along with slow, mixed and fast decay modes, for smooth, quiet, high-resolution motion profiles in applications such as printers, scanners, security cameras, cash handlers, medical equipment and factory automation.

The brushed DC motor drivers also have 2.5A to 5A peak current options and control interfaces for PH/EN and PWM control. On-chip cycle-by-cycle inrush protection limits start-up and stall currents, protecting the driver and reducing overall system cost in a variety of applications, such as printers, robotics, toys, servo motors, textile manufacturing equipment, solenoid valves and consumer electronics.

The DRV8x motor drivers integrate the gate drive circuitry, MOSFETs, protection circuitry and current regulation circuitry to reduce design complexity, board space and time to market compared to discrete solutions.

Texas Instruments