STEPPER MOTOR

A Stepper motor is an electromechanical device it converts electrical power into mechanical

power.. The stepper motor uses the theory of operation for magnets to make the motor shaft turn
a precise movement when a pulse of electricity is provided. The speed of the motor is controlled
by the frequency of the pulses.
A stepper motor is a “digital” version of the electric motor. The rotor moves in discrete steps as
commanded, rather than rotating continuously like a conventional motor.
Step angle
Step angle is defined as the angle which the rotor of a stepper motor moves when one pulse is
applied to the input of the stator. ... A standard motor will have a step angle of 1.8 degrees with
200 steps per revolution.
Stepping rate:
It is defined as the speed of rotation of a stepper motor in terms of the number of steps per
second where the number of steps equals the number of input pulses.
Micro stepping:
It is defined as the stepping rate at which the rotor has to move number of steps to complete one
revolution. It improves the resolution.
Resolution:
The factor which defines the fine movement of the rotor to complete one revolution smoothly is
called resolution. If number of steps increased per revolution, the resolution will be increased.
Stepper Motor Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages:
1. The rotation angle of the motor is proportional to the input pulse.
2. The motor has full torque at standstill (if the windings are energized)
3. Precise positioning and repeatability of movement since good stepper motors have an accuracy
of 3 – 5% of a step and this error is non cumulative from one step to the next.
4. Excellent response to starting/stopping/reversing.
5. Very reliable since there are no contact brushes in the motor. Therefore the life of the motor is
simply dependant on the life of the bearing.
6. The motors response to digital input pulses provides open-loop control, making the motor
simpler and less costly to control.
7. It is possible to achieve very low speed synchronous rotation with a load that is directly
coupled to the shaft.
8. A wide range of rotational speeds can be realized as the speed is proportional to the frequency
of the input pulses.
Disadvantages:
1. Resonances can occur if not properly controlled.
2. Not easy to operate at extremely high speeds.

Applications of stepper motor.

• CD disk drive
• Hard disk drive
• Driving paper feed mechanism in Printers
• Driving Pens in Plotters
• Robotics
• Numerical Control Machine Tools
• Tape drives and Video recorders.

Variable Reluctance Stepper Motor

The principle of Variable Reluctance Stepper Motor is based on the property of the flux lines
which capture the low reluctance path. The stator and the rotor of the motor are aligned in such a
way that the magnetic reluctance is minimum. There are two types of the Variable Reluctance
Stepper Motor. They are as follows
Single Stack Variable Reluctance Stepper Motor
Multi Stack Variable Reluctance Stepper Motor
SINGLE STACK VARIABLE RELUCTANCE STEPPER MOTOR
Construction:
The VR stepper motor characterized by the fact there is no permanent magnet either on the rotor
or the stator. The construction of a 3-phase VR stepper motor with 6 poles on the stator and 4-
pole on the rotor as shown.
 The Stator is made up of silicon steel stampings with inward projected even or odd number of
poles or teeth. Each and every stator poles carries a field coil an exciting coil. In case of even
number of poles the exciting coils of opposite poles are connected in series. The two coils are
connected such that their MMF gets added the combination of two coils is known as phase
winding.
The rotor is also made up of silicon steel stampings with outward projected poles and it
does not have any electrical windings. The number of rotor poles should be different from that of
stators in order to have self-starting capability and bi direction. The width of rotor teeth should
be same as stator teeth. Solid silicon steel rotors are extensively employed. Both the stator and
rotor materials must have lowering a high magnetic flux to pass through them even if a low
magneto motive force is applied.
Electrical Connection
Electrical connection of VR stepper as shown fig. Coil A and A‘ are connected in series to
form a phase winding. This phase winding is connected to a DC source with the help of
semiconductor switch [Link] B and B‘ and C and C‘ are connected to the same source
through semiconductor switches S2 and S3 respectively. The motor has 3 –phases a, b and c.
[Link] consist of A and A‘ Coils
[Link] consist of B and B‘ Coils
c phase consist of C and C‘ Coils

Principle of Operation
It works on the principle of variable reluctance. The principle of operation of VR stepper motor
explained by referring fig.
Mode 1 : One phase ON or full step operation
In this mode of operation of stepper motor only one phase is energized at any time. If current is
applied to the coils of phase ‗a‘ (or) phase ‗a‘ is excited, the reluctance torque causes the rotor
to run until aligns with the axis of phase a. The axis of rotor poles 1 and 3 are in alignment with
the axis of stator poles ‗A‘ and ‗A‘‘. Then angle θ = 0° the magnetic reluctance is minimized
and this state provides a rest or equilibrium position to the rotor and rotor cannot move until
phase ‗a‘ is energized.
Next phase b is energized by turning on the semiconductor switch S2 and phase ‗a‘ is de
–energized by turning off [Link] the rotor poles 1 and 3 and 2 and 4 experience torques in
opposite direction. When the rotor and stator teeth are out of alignment in the excited phase the
magnetic reluctance is large. The torque experienced by 1 and 3 are in clockwise direction and
that of 2 and 4 is in counter clockwise direction. The latter is more than the former. As a result
the rotor makes an angular displacement of 30° in counterclockwise direction so that B and B‘
and 2 and 4 in alignment. The phases are excited in sequence a, b and c the rotor turns with a step
of 30° in counter clockwise direction. The direction of rotation can be reversed by reversing the
switching sequence in which are energized and is independent of the direction of currents
through the phase winding.
 The truth table for mode I operation in counter and clockwise directions are
given in the table
Table 1: Counter Clockwise Rotation (CCW) Table 2: Clockwise Rotation (CW)

Mode II: Two Phase on Mode

In this mode two stator phases are excited simultaneously. When phases a and b are energized
together, the rotor experiences torque from both phases and comes to rest in a point mid-way
between the two adjacent full step position. If the phases b and c are excited, the rotor occupies a
position such that angle between AA‘ axis of stator and 1-3 axis of rotor is equal to 45°.To
reverse the direction of rotation switching sequence is changed a and b,a and c etc. The main
advantage of this type of operation is that torque developed by the stepper motor is more than
that due to single phase ON mode of operation.
Table 3: Counter Clockwise Rotation (CCW) Table 4: Clockwise Rotation (CW)
Mode III: Half step Mode
In this type of mode of operation on phase is ON for some duration and two phases are ON
during some other duration. The step angle can be reduced from 30° to 15° by exciting phase
sequence a, a+b, b,b+c, c etc. The technique of shifting excitation from one phase to another
from a to b with an intermediate step of a+b is known as half step and is used to realize smaller
steps continuous half stepping produces smoother shaft rotation.
Table 5: Counter Clockwise Rotation (CCW) Table 6 : Clockwise Rotation (CW)

MULTI STACK VARIABLE RELUCTANCE STEPPER MOTOR

A Multi Stack or m stack variable stack reluctance motor is made up of m identical single stack
variable reluctance motor. The rotor is mounted on the single shaft. The stator and rotor of
the Multi Stack Variable motor have the same number of poles and hence, the same pole pitch.

All the stator poles are aligned in a Multi-Stack motor. But the rotor poles are displaced by
1/m of the pole pitch angle from each other. The stator windings of each stack forms one
phase as the stator pole windings are excited simultaneously. Thus, the number of phases
and the number of stacks are same.

Consider the cross-sectional view of the three stack motor parallel to the shaft is shown
below.
There are 12 stator and rotor poles in each stack. The pole pitch for the 12 pole rotor is 30,
and the step angle or the rotor pole teeth are displaced by 10 degrees from each other. The
calculation is shown below.

Let Nr be the number of rotor teeth and m be the number of stacks or phases.
Hence, Tooth pitch is represented by the equation shown below

As there are 12 poles in the stator and rotor, thus the value of Nr = 12. Now, putting the
value of Nr in the equation (1) we get

The value of m= 3. Therefore, the step angle will be calculated by putting the value of m in
the equation (2).
When the phase winding A is excited the rotor teeth of stack A are aligned with the stator
teeth as shown in the figure below.

When phase A is de-energized, and phase B is excited, rotor teeth of the stack B are aligned
with the stator teeth. The rotor movement is about 10 degrees in the anticlockwise direction.
The motor moves one step which is equal to ½ of the pole pitch due to change of excitation
from stack A to stack B. The figure below shows the position of the stator and rotor teeth
when the phase B is excited.

Similarly, now phase B is de-energized, and phase C is excited. The rotor moves another step of
1/3 of the pole pitch in the anticlockwise direction. Again, another change in the excitation of the
rotor takes place, and the stator and rotor teeth align it with stack A. However, during this whole
process (A – B – C – A ) the rotor has moved one rotor tooth pitch.

Multi Stack Variable Reluctance Stepper Motors are widely used to obtain smaller step angles in
the range of 2 to 15 degrees. Both the Variable reluctance motor Single Stack and Multi Stack
types have a high torque to inertia ratio.

Advantages and Disadvantages of VRSM

Advantages:
• High torque to inertia ratio
• Rotor inertial is less
• High stepping rate and high speed slewing capability
• Less weight
• Freewheeling ability
Disadvantages :
• At low voltages low stepping rate and low efficiency
• Presence of mid range resonance frequency under certain drive conditions.
• Normal step angle is 30 degree.
• Absence of detent torque with winding de energized.

PERMANENT MAGNET STEPPER MOTOR

The Permanent Magnet Stepper Motor has a stator construction similar to that of the single
stack variable reluctance motor. The rotor consists of permanent magnet poles of high retentivity
steel and is cylindrical in shape. The concentrating windings on diametrically opposite poles are
connected in series to form a two phase winding on the stator.

In figure (a) the current flows start to the end of phase A. The phase winding is denoted by
A+ and the current by i+A. The figure shows the condition when the phase winding is excited with
the current i+A. The south pole of the rotor is attracted by the stator phase A. Thus, the magnetic
axis of the stator and rotor coincide and α = 0⁰

Similarly, in the figure (b) the current flows from the start to the end at phase B. The current is
denoted by i+B and the winding by B+. Considering the figure (b), the windings of phase A does
not carry any current and the phase B is excited by the i+B current. The stator pole attracts the
rotor pole and the rotor moves by 90⁰ in the clockwise direction. Here α = 90⁰
The figure (c) below shows that the current flows from the end to the start of the phase A. This
current is denoted by i–A and the winding is denoted by A–. The current i–A is opposite to the
current i+A. Here, phase B winding is de-energized and phase A winding is excited by the current
i–A. The rotor moves further 90⁰ in clockwise direction and the α = 180⁰

In the above figure (d), the current flows from end to starting point of phase B. The
current is represented by i–B and the winding by B–. Phase A carries no current and the phase B is
excited. The rotor again moves further 90⁰ and the value of α = 270⁰

Completing the one revolution of the rotor for making α = 360⁰ the rotor moves further 90
degrees by de-energizing the winding of phase B and exciting the phase A. In the permanent
magnet stepper motor the direction of the rotation depends on the polarity of the phase
[Link] sequence A+, B+, A–, B–, A+ is followed by the clockwise movement of the rotor and
for the anticlockwise movement, the sequence becomes A+ B–, A–, B+, A+.

The permanent magnet rotor with large number of poles is difficult to make, therefore, stepper
motors of this type are restricted to large step size in the range of 30 to 90⁰. They have higher
inertia and therefore, lower acceleration than variable stepper motors. The Permanent Magnet
stepper motor produces more torque than the variable reluctance stepper motor.

Permanent Magnet stepper motors offer many features compared to variable reluctance type such
as
• Higher inertia and consequently lower acceleration (deceleration) rates.
• Maximum step pulse rate is 300 pulses per second compared to 1200 pulses per second for
variable reluctance stepper motors.
• Larger step sizes, ranging from 30° to 90° compared to step sizes as low as 1.8° for variable
reluctance stepper motors.
• Generate higher torque per ampere of stator currents than variable reluctance stepper motors.
Merits and Demerits of permanent magnet stepper motor.
Merits:
• Provides detent torque when winding is de energized
• Less resonance tendency
• High holding torque capability
• High efficiency at lower speeds and stepping rates
• High stepping rate capability
• Better damping due to the presence of rotor magnet.
Demerits:
• Higher inertia and weight due to the rotor magnet
• Performance will be affected by change in magnet strength
• Costlier than VRSM.