TI spins out eight new motor drivers for stepper, brushed DC motors

DALLAS, USA: Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has expanded its DRV8x motor driver family with eight new devices supporting up to 5 A for higher-current bipolar stepper and brushed DC motors.

The new DRV8x motor drivers provide RDSon as low as 100 milliohms, 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.

Key features and benefits
• Bipolar stepper motor drivers: 2.5-A to 5-A peak current options and control interfaces for phase-enable (PH/EN), step/direction with indexer and pulse-width modulation (PWM) control. Supports 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.

• Brushed DC motor drivers: 2.5-A to 5-A 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.

• Robust, reliable and fully protected: Advanced on-chip protection, including over-current, over-temperature, shoot-through and under-voltage lock-out increases system reliability and manufacturing yields.

• Reduce design complexity and time to market: 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.

• Upgrade path: Pin-for-pin compatibility with existing DRV8x motor drivers provides flexibility for high or low current.