ELECTRONICS & POWER OCTOBER 1978 747

High-speed operation
of stepping motors
b y A . Hu g h e s , B.Sc, Ph.D., C.Eng., M.I.E.E.
Stepping rates as high as 20 000 steps/
second are now not unusual in
stepping-motor systems. To achieve such
high rates, the drive circuits must be more
sophisticated than for single stepping, and
many different techniques are in use. By
using these techniques, even relatively
poor motors, most of them designed as
static devices, can be forced to run fast by
providing sufficient power in the drive cir-
cuits. The need for this 'sledgehammer'
approach can, however, be reduced if both
the motor and its drive are designed spec-
ifically for high-speed running
The principal advantage of the stepping motor over
other forms of position control is that it is an
open-loop device. The output shaft rotates through
a definite angle (step) every time a step command
pulse is delivered to the drive circuit. Hence,
providing the permissible mechanical load on the
shaft is not exceeded, the total angle turned through
by the rotor is always equal to the number of input
pulses times the step angle.
The step angle is a property of the motor, and
commonly available angles range from 0-45 to 90;
motors with 1 -8/step (200 steps a revolution) are
very common, especially in machine-tool appli-
cations. Motors generally have between three and
six sets of windings (phases) on the stator. and these
are switched sequentially from a d.c. supply. When
one phase is switched off, and another is switched
on, the toothed rotor, which in some cases includes
a permanent magnet, moves to a new alignment
position, torque being provided by the magnetic
alignment forces between stator and rotor teeth.
1
The rotor remains held in the new position until
excitation is switched to the next phase.
A typical single-step response is shown in Fig. la.
It is similar to that of a 2nd-order position servo,
with settling times typically in the range 25-150 ms.
The relatively poor damping is often an embarr-
assment,
2
though at the same time the low damping
factor allows the motor to run fast (see later).
If further step commands are received before the
rotor has come to rest, the response may be as
shown in Fig. \b. The motor is still 'stepping', even
though it never comes to rest between steps. When
the stepping rate is increased further, however, the
situation shown in Fig. k is reached. This is the
slewing mode. The rotor velocity is essentially
constant, and equal to the step angle times the
number of pulses per second.
Austin Hughes is a lecturer with the Department of
Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of
Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, England.
Very high stepping rates can be achieved when
the motor is slewing. For example, 1-8 step motors
are now frequently driven at 20 000 steps/s, giving a
shaft speed of 6000 rev/min. Position integrity is
maintained at these high stepping rates (as indeed it
must be for open-loop position control to be
achieved), but, to reach them, the stepping fre-
quency must be ramped up and down from the
much lower rate (perhaps 200 steps/s) at which the
motor can be started and stopped without losing
steps.
For the motor to be useful, it must, of course, not
only run, but also be able to produce output torque
throughout its speed range. In common with all but
Hybrid stepper motor used in automatic test equipment for testing a.c.
contractors. The equipment was designed by, and is used by, Cutler-Hammer
Europa Ltd. [Photo: Courtesy of Evershed & Vkjnoles Ltd. ]
0013-5127/78/0564-0747 $1 -50/0
v IEE: 1978
l Rotor-position/time responses
a Single step
b Stow stepping
c Slewing
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748 ELECTRONICS & POWER OCTOBER 1978
the very smallest* electromechanical devices, how-
ever, there are problems in operating steppers at
these high exitation frequencies. The principal
drawback is the relatively long time constant of the
windings. For example, each phase of a 4-phase
motor may have a winding time-constant of 5 ms.
At 20 000 steps/s, it is being switched on and off
every 0-2 ms. If only rated voltage is applied (i.e.
the voltage needed to produce rated direct current),
hardly any current will be established before the
phase is again turned off, and the available torque
will be very small.
In practice, high speeds are only possible at all if
the drive circuit has sufficient 'overvoltage' to force
significant current at high stepping rates, and con-
sequently the usefulness of a given motor iri the
slewing range is largely determined by its drive
circuit. This dependence of motor performance on
its drive is a constant source of difficulty with users,
who can easily be misled into expecting more from
their motor than its drive can provide. A further
source of difficulty centres on the motors them-
selves. These are usually specified by their 'static'
torque, i.e. the maximum torque that the motor can
exert when the rotor is stationary. It often happens
that apparently similar motors give quite different
performance at high stepping rates, even with iden-
tical drives. And unless a particular motor is ope-
rated from a particular drive, for which the man-
ufacturer can provide performance data, there is
always uncertainty as to whether the package will
meet its specifications.
Drive circuits and torque characteristics
The simplest and cheapest drive circuit is shown
in Fig. 2a. Each phase has a sitigie switching
transistor and freewheel diode (through which the
current decays after switch off); and the direct voltage
Vi is just sufficient to give rated current in the
winding. This type of drive is adequate for many
single-stepping applications and for continuous
stepping provided the interval between steps is not
much less than the winding time constant. But with
time constants of typically 5 ms, its useful range is
limited to perhaps 200 steps/s, which represents
only 60 rev/min on a 200 step motor. At higher
stepping rates, the phase currents will be so small
that very little torque will be developed. The fall off
The majority of stepping motors can comfortably be Held in the
hand. At the extremes, however, are mottirs of 3 mm diameter for
use in watches, and of 20 cm diameter with outputs of from 750 to
1500 W for use in machine tools
in torque as the stepping rate is increased is shown
in Fig. 3a. At very low stepping rates, the torque
available is roughly equal to the static torque, but,
as can be seen, this falls off very quickly with
increasing speed, when the simplest drive is used.
Torque/speed curves are almost always presented
as single-line curves, as in Fig. 3. This sometimes
gives the erroneous impression that the motor pro-
duces a unique torque at a given stepping rate. In
fact, the area below the curve and bounded by the
axes defines the region in which the motor can be
operated, and the ordinate of the curve indicates
the maximum steady torque the motor can develop
at a particular (steady) speed. If the load torque
exceeds this value - known as the pull-out torque -
the motor loses synchronism and stops. If this
happens, the vital one-to-one correspondence bet-
ween the number of command pulses and the
number of steps taken is lost: the step counter
blithely continues to accumulate command pulses,
but the motor and load are stationary. Although not
always catastrophic, this situation is not usually
acceptable, and it indicates the importance to the
system designer of the torque/pulse-rate curve. He
must be sure there is always sufficent torque avail-
able for all foreesable loads and speeds, t
The most common method for increasing the
torque available at higher speeds is by the addition
of resistance - invariably known as forcing resis-
tance - in series with each phase winding, the
supply voltage being raised to maintain the rated
current and thereby to preserve the full static torque
(Fig. 2). The extra resistance (typically from 2 to 20
times the motor resistance) decreases the effective
time constant, so that current can be established
more rapidly and the motor can operate to a higher
stepping rate. It provides an approximation to a
'constant-current' drive (see below).
Broadly, increasing the total phase circuit resis-
tance by a factor of, say, five causes a given
high-speed pull-out torque to be available at five
times the original stepping rate, as shown in Fig 3b.
The much improved performance is only obtained
at the expense of an increased power supply rating
(five times rated voltage in the example above),
however, and the overall efficiency is poor, par-
ticularly at low speeds, where most (about 80%) of
the power is wasted as heat in the resistors.
t In practice, there are always 'dips' in the torque/speed curves at
various frequencies, owing to resonances and instability; but for
the sake of simplicity, they are ignored in this discussion
motor
winding
2 Improvements to basic drive circuit a for one phase by addition of forcing resistance b and bypass
capacitor c. Voltage V is larger than Vi to give the same direct current
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Although the extra resistance is always referred
to as forcing resistance, this description is not really
accurate, and 'limiting resistance' would be a better
term. This is because the increased voltage is
responsible for the faster rise of current, not the
resistance. The function of the resistance is to limit
the steady current to the safe (rated) value for the
motor, when it is single-stepping or stationary.
When the stepping rate is high enough for the
current not to reach its final value, the resistance
serves no useful purpose: it simply consumes power,
and, because of the IR drop across it, decreases the
voltage available at the motor. And if the resistance
could be short circuited at high stepping rates, when
it is not needed for current-limiting, the motor's per-
formance would be improved.
Bypassing of the forcing resistance at high step-
ping rates can be achieved using capacitors in
parallel with the resistors (Fig. 2c). For unipolar
drives, in which the current always flows in the
same direction through the winding, relatively cheap
electrolytic capacitors can be used, and substantial
improvements in output torque can be obtained. In
Fig. 3c, for example, by adding 500 yxF capacitors in
parallel with each resistor, approximately twice as
much torque is available over the speed range
500-100 pulses/s.
The inherently low efficiency of the forcing resis-
tance drives is avoided by the use of a bilevel drive.
Two supply voltages are needed. A high voltage is
applied at the start and finish of the excitation
period, to provide rapid buildup and decay of
current, and a lower (rated) voltage is used to
maintain the current during the 'on' period. The
transition from high to low voltage is made after a
fixed time interval, or, more reliably, by sensing the
phase current and switching over when rated cur-
rent is reached.
All the above drives suffer from the disadvantage
that they include no provision for taking account of
the influence of the motor's motional e.m.f. ('back
e.m.f.') on the current. In effect, such drives provide
only 'open-loop' current control. For maximum
output, particularly at high stepping rates, closed-
loop current-control schemes are used.
Constant-current drives
To obtain maximum pull-out torque over the
widest possible speed range, full current must be
held during each 'on' period. This is achieved by
providing closed-loop control of winding current,
and two systems are widely used.
ELECTRONICS & POWER OCTOBER 1978
In the first, the net motor current is measured,
and the supply voltage is controlled to keep the
current constant. As the stepping rate is increased,
the supply voltage rises to compensate for the
effects of the winding time constant and the
motional e.m.f. An upper limit is finally reached
when the supply voltage is at its maximum value,
and torque then falls with stepping rate.
The variable voltage is obtained from the mains
via a phase-controlled rectifier and smoothing
capacitors. Because of the relatively slow response
time of the supply voltage, the rate at which the
stepping frequency is changed must be limited. This
is particularly important when changing from high
to low stepping rates: if the stepping frequency is
decreased too quickly, the voltage may not be able
to fall quickly enough, and the winding transistors
will consequently be subjected to overcurrents.
The second constant-current drive, used in high-
performance systems, which justify the higher cost,
is the 'chopper' drive. A fixed high voltage, typically
20 times motor voltage, is used to provide a rapid
initial rise of current. When rated current is sensed,
the voltage is switched off, and the current decays
to a level (typically 90% of rated current), before
the high voltage is reapplied. This 'chopping' pro-
cess continues until the end of the 'on' period. As
the stepping rate is increased, a point is reached
when the chopping action ceases: full voltage is
applied throughout the 'on' period, but the current
has insufficient time to reach rated value. Above
this speed, there is inevitably a rapid falloff in
pull-out torque.
High-speed motors
The importance of the drive circuit in determining
the high-speed performance has been emphasised
above, and over the last ten years or so, a great
deal of effort and progress has been made in that
area. But no matter how good the drive circuit is, it
is the motor that ultimately does the work; and,
obviously, the optimum overall performance
requires the 'best' motor and the 'best' drive circuit.
As mentioned earlier, however, motors are usu-
ally catalogued, and initially selected, on the basis
of their static torque. The task of finding a motor
that has good high-speed torque capability has,
hitherto, been something of a hit-and-miss business,
with motors of the same static torque and time
constant having quite different high-speed torque,
even when operated under identical drive con-
ditions.
749
forcing \ forcing resistance
resistance \and bypass
added \capacitance
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WOO 2000
3 Pull-out torque curves, showing the improvement to the basic curve a by the addition of five times winding
resistance b and bypass capacitance c
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750 ELECTRONICS & POWER OCTOBER 1978
4 Pull-out torque curves for hybrid motors with the same static torque
and time constant but different internal design
The principal reasons for these differences have
become clearer from some recent work
3
aimed at
finding out how motors should be designed to
produce high torque at high stepping rates. These
studies extend the very considerable volume of
recent publications
4
that deal with optimising static
torque in stepping motors, and some of the con-
clusions can be illustrated by considering the most
numerous type of motor, the so-called hybrid
permanent-magnet (p.m.) type.
In this type of motor, torque is produced by the
interaction of the flux 0 from the permanent magnet
on the rotor with the current / in the stator
windings. The torque depends on the product 0/,
and so a given static torque can be achieved in an
infinite variety of ways. While one motor may have
a relatively large magnet, and small stator current
(or, strictly, stator m.m.f.), another motor achieves
the same static torque from a smaller magnet but a
larger stator m.m.f.
In the analysis of the motors' high-speed torque
capability, it turns out that the torque at a given
stepping rate is governed by a parameter k, which is
the ratio of the magnet flux 0 to the stator winding
self flux (which is itself proportional to stator
m.m.f.). Hence, for a given static torque, the
product of two quantities has to be constant; but
the ratio of the same two quantities determines
what proportion of the static torque will be avail-
able at a given speed; or, in other words, the
parameter k determines how fast the pull-out torque
falls off with increasing stepping rate, the drive
voltage being constant.
The influence of the parameter k is shown in Fig.
4. All the motors have the same static torque, and
the same winding time constant, but achieve the
static torque in different ways. A critical case occurs
at k = 1. Motors with k < 1 can, theorectically,
produce torque at all stepping rates, whereas, if k >
1, there is a definite maximum speed above which
the motor cannot produce output torque. Appar-
ently, the smaller k is, the better the motor's
high-speed torque.
This suggests that motors with 'weak' magnets
(low k) should be best for high-speed running, and
this conclusion is broadly confirmed by tests on
various manufacturers' motors. For a wide range of
motors, k is found to vary considerably, from as low
as 0-3 to as high as 1 -3. The low-A: motors, although
best suited to high-speed running, have inherently
poorer damping than the high-/: ones. Not sur-
prisingly, therefore, there is a conflict between the
requirements of fast running and good single-step
damping, and a compromise generally has to be
accepted.
If high speed is the prime concern, however, it
appears from Fig. 4 that the lower k is, the better.
In fact, however, this is not so when proper
account is taken of the drive requirements. This is
because, although Fig. 4 is for motors having
identical static torques, time constants, and drive
voltage, it disguises the fact that the power .of the
drive is different for each value of k. A motor with
low k has a higher stator current, and therefore a
higher-power (and more expensive) drive; and it
therefore seems only reasonable to expect better
performance from such a motor. To obtain the
'best' combination of drive and motor for fast
running, it has to be recognised that, broadly
speaking, the cost of the drive will be proportional
to its power output. Hence the motor must be
chosen to give maximum high-speed torque for a
given drive power. On this basis, the optimum value
of k is 0-5. By contrast the optimum value of k,
which is arrived at from static design considerations,
is approximately 1. Many existing motors have
values of k close to 1, and are therefore 'good' in a
static sense; but, inevitably, they are also inherently
poorly suited to high-speed running.
References
1 LAWRENSON, P.J.: 'Stepping up to date'. Electron. &
Pwr., 1975, 21, pp. 306-308
2 HUGHES, A., and LAWRENSON, P.J.: 'Electro-
magnetic damping in stepping motors', Proc. IEE, 1975,
122,(8), pp.819-824
3 HUGHES, A.: 'Parameters governing the dynamic per-
formance of permanent magnet stepping motors'. Pro-
ceedings of the 6th Incremental Motion Control Systems
& Devices Symposium, University of Illinois, 1977
4 HARRIS, M.R., et. ai: 'Unifying approach to the static
torque of stepping-motor structures', Proc. IEE, 1977,
124,(12), pp. 1215-1224
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