Advanced stepper control technology enables quiet drive in industrial applications

DALLAS, Sept. 9, 2013 — (PRNewswire) — Texas Instruments (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today expanded its motor driver portfolio to include the company's first integrated stepper motor pre-driver. The DRV8711 is highly configurable with a best-in-class on-chip micro-stepping indexer, as well as stall detection, and advanced current regulation that easily and efficiently tunes any motor. External MOSFETs control the stepper motor to provide minimum heat dissipation and 20-percent more scalable output current than the nearest competitor, allowing designers to customize their design. The stepper motor pre-driver is designed for industrial applications, including textile machinery, video surveillance, ATM machines, robotics, office automation equipment and stage lighting.  For more information or to place an order, visit www.ti.com/drv8711-pr.

Key features and benefits of the DRV8711:

• Customizable driver stage: Gate drive supports up to 200 mA of source current per 400 mA of sink current with adjustable slew rate, dead-time and on-time to accommodate application requirements. The device drives external N-channel MOSFETs with a built-in charge pump to provide more design options and a cost-effective solution.
• Smooth motion profile for higher performance: Spins a stepper motor with an integrated micro-stepping indexer capable of up to 1/256 micro-stepping. Adaptive blanking time and various current decay modes, including slow, fast, mixed and auto-mixed decay, achieve a smooth profile to optimize motor performance.
• Internal and external stall-detect feature: Designers can easily detect stall conditions through internal stall detection, or process the optional back electromotive force (BEMF) output to detect stall conditions and take corrective action through the external controller. This allows the designer to minimize a disturbance from a motor stall.
• Easy to use and highly configurable: SPI interface allows the customer to program the output current, micro-stepping mode, current decay mode and stall detection to reduce system complexity and simplify design compared to similar devices.
• Robust, reliable and protected: The DRV8711's protection against motor over-current, pre-driver over-current, over temperature and under voltage fault conditions provides system protection, and enables system reliability and system robustness.

Tools and support

The DRV8711EVM is available to evaluate the motor pre-driver. This evaluation module (EVM) includes a low-power MSP430F2617 microcontroller (MCU) and external NexFET™ power MOSFETs. The EVM provides up to 52-V externally through the power header and a USB interface to communicate with the MSP430F2617 MCU through a graphical user interface (GUI). A stepper motor is also included to evaluate controller performance.

Support is available on the Motor Driver Forum in the TI E2E^TM Community, where engineers can ask questions and get answers from TI experts.

Package, availability and pricing

The DRV8711 is available now in a 38-pin HTSSOP PowerPad^TM package with thermal pad for a suggested retail price of US$2.75 in 1,000-unit quantities.

Learn more about TI's motor control solutions by visiting the links below:

• Order samples of the DRV8711.
• Purchase the evaluation module.
• Download the datasheet.
• Check out tricks in current regulation when micro-stepping a stepper motor on the Motor Drive and Control blog.
• Watch an Engineer It video on how to regulate your current when micro-stepping a stepper motor.

TI spins motors

TI combines a rich history in motor drive and control, a broad portfolio of analog and microcontroller products and a comprehensive offering of tools, software and support to deliver efficient, reliable, cost-effective motor solutions. Customers can get the right solutions at the right performance level to quickly spin any motor, including AC induction (ACIM), brushed DC, brushless DC (BLDC), PMSM and stepper.

TI analog for industrial

TI is the industrial semiconductor market share leader, providing a diverse portfolio of analog integrated circuits (ICs) for a broad range of applications, including Smart Grid, factory automation, high-voltage power, LED lighting and control.  TI data converters, amplifiers, interface, isolation, clocking, and power management devices enable customers to differentiate their products, while TI software, design tools and reference designs simplify and accelerate design cycles. Learn how TI analog products improve industrial safety, efficiency and reliability at www.ti.com/analogindustrial-pr.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company that develops analog ICs and embedded processors.  By employing the world's brightest minds, TI creates innovations that shape the future of technology.  TI is helping more than 100,000 customers transform the future, today.  Learn more at www.ti.com.

SOURCE Texas Instruments

Contact:

Texas Instruments Lacy Mezger, Texas Instruments, 214-479-3427 Email Contact Vicky Smithee, GolinHarris, 972-341-2537 Email Contact (Please do not publish these numbers or e-mail addresses.) Web: http://www.ti.com