SLOSE98A December 2022 – September 2023 DRV8461
PRODUCTION DATA
For a typical stepper motor driver, the full-scale current is designed based on the peak load torque demand. This ensures that the motor does not lose steps any time peak load is demanded. The current therefore is constant irrespective of the load torque. As a result, when load torque is lower than the peak load, the driver and the motor dissipate some of the input power as resistive power loss as represented in Figure 7-22.
In most systems, the demand for peak load torque occurs only rarely. For example, in an ATM machine, the stepper motors might be needed to deliver peak load for less than 15% of their overall run time. A typical stepper driver though ends up delivering full-scale current to the motors all the time - leading to lower system efficiency due to the unwanted power loss, larger system size and shorter lifetime of components.
The Auto-torque algorithm implemented in the DRV8461 improves system efficiency by dynamically changing the output current according to the load torque. Whenever the load torque is low, the output current is lowered to reduce resistive losses; and when the load torque goes up, the output current increases immediately to prevent motor step loss. This concept is shown in Figure 7-25. As a result of improved efficiency due to auto-torque, the system runs at a lower temperature, which extends the lifetime of the components. Auto-torque can also enable the use of cheaper and smaller sized stepper motors.
The auto-torque feature is enabled by writing 1b to the ATQ_EN bit.