SLOSE59C May 2020 – July 2022 DRV8424 , DRV8425
PRODUCTION DATA
The DRV8424/25 devices are integrated motor-driver solutions for bipolar stepper motors. The devices provide the maximum integration by integrating two N-channel power MOSFET H-bridges, current sense resistors and regulation circuitry, and a microstepping indexer. The DRV8424 and DRV8425 are pin-to-pin compatible with the DRV8426, DRV8436, and the DRV8434. The DRV8424 and DRV8425 are capable of supporting wide supply voltage of 4.5 to 33 V. DRV8424 provides an output current up to 4-A peak, 2.5-A full-scale, or 1.8-A root mean square (rms), while the DRV8425 provides an output current up to 3.2-A peak, 2-A full-scale, or 1.4-A root mean square (rms). The actual full-scale and rms current depends on the ambient temperature, supply voltage, and PCB thermal capability.
The DRV8424/25 devices use an integrated current-sense architecture which eliminates the need for two external power sense resistors, hence saving significant board space, BOM cost, design efforts and reduces significant power consumption. This architecture removes the power dissipated in the sense resistors by using a current mirror approach and using the internal power MOSFETs for current sensing. The current regulation set point is adjusted by the voltage at the VREF pin.
A simple STEP/DIR interface allows for an external controller to manage the direction and step rate of the stepper motor. The internal microstepping indexer can execute high-accuracy micro-stepping without requiring the external controller to manage the winding current level. The indexer is capable of full step, half step, and 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128, and 1/256 microstepping. High microstepping contributes to significant audible noise reduction and smooth motion. In addition to a standard half stepping mode, a noncircular half stepping mode is available for increased torque output at higher motor RPM.
Stepper motor drivers need to re-circulate the winding current by implementing several types of decay modes, like slow decay, mixed decay and fast decay. The DRV8424/25 comes with smart tune decay modes. The smart tune is an innovative decay mechanism that automatically adjusts for optimal current regulation performance agnostic of voltage, motor speed, variation and aging effects. Smart tune Ripple Control uses a variable off-time, ripple current control scheme to minimize distortion of the motor winding current. Smart tune Dynamic Decay uses a fixed off-time, dynamic fast decay percentage scheme to minimize distortion of the motor winding current while minimizing frequency content and significantly reducing design efforts. Along with this seamless, effortless automatic smart tune, DRV8424/25 also provides the traditional decay modes like slow-mixed and mixed decay as well.
A low-power sleep mode is included which allows the system to save power when not actively driving the motor.