POWER AND LINEAR IC SOLUTIONS

Driver IC Suits Both Stepper and Brush-DC Circuits

Toshiba Electronics Europe has announced a multi-motor driver IC that allows engineers to establish a common hardware solution to driving multiple stepper motors or brush DC motors. The TB62237BFG device uses Toshiba Electronics’ high- voltage IC technology to combine four H-bridge outputs with motor control logic for stepper and brush DC motors, as well as three DC/DC converters, a built-in timer and protection functions.



The device is a highly integrated solution for driving single-, dual- and four-axis motors. The DMOS motor driver outputs achieve low on-resistance of 0.6Ω for low-loss operation, leading to high efficiency. A further benefit is low heat dissipation, which enhances reliability and reduces cost by easing thermal management.

With two 16-bit shift registers, each equipped with a latch, the IC can drive any combination of stepper and brushed DC motors up to a maximum of four axes. Each of the four H-bridges can be programmed to accommodate either a stepper configuration with 4-bit micro stepping or a DC brushed one. Parallel operation of each pair of H-bridges is also supported.

The device can drive motors operating at an input voltage up to 40V. Maximum standard drive current is 6.4A per bridge, and can be increased to 8.0A for single- or dual-axis operation by connecting the device’s H-bridge pairs using external jumpers.

Four selectable mixed decay schemes optimise performance for stepper motor drives. There are three independent DC/DC converters, each one allowing for output currents up to 1.2A. By parallel operation of two converters a maximum of 2.4A can be realised.

Additional on-chip features include a built-in timer that starts running when the IC is supplied with power, which can be used to initialise external devices. A reset block is also included, making it possible to deliver an external reset signal.

The TB62237BFG implements comprehensive protection functions to prevent damage to the motor as well as the IC without requiring external components. These include overcurrent and overvoltage protection for internal DC/DC converters, as well as motor overcurrent protection and IC over-temperature protection. The device is delivered in a 64-pin QFP surface-mount package featuring a metal plate on the bottom side which can be soldered directly to a suitable copper plane on the printed circuit board for efficient cooling.

Features

• Multi-motor driver IC
• Drive any combination of up to four axes of stepper and brushed DC motors
• Four DMOS H-bridge outputs
  • 0.6Ω on-resistance
• Motor control logic for stepper and brush DC motors
• Three DC/DC converters
• Built-in timer
• Protection functions
• Two 16-bit shift registers with latch
• Motor voltage up to 40V
• Standard drive current up to 6.4A per bridge
  • Optionally up to 8A
• Four selectable mixed decay schemes
• 64-pin thermally enhanced QFP

Applications

• Stepper motor drives
• Brush motor drives
• One-, two-, three- and four-axis control

For further information, including the Toshiba Interactive Motion Control CD-ROM and details of how to obtain Samples, please click here